‘Alan Wake 2’ director says ‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’ “boosted” Remedy’s confidence in the game

Sam Lake, the director of Alan Wake 2, has revealed that the success of Everything Everywhere All At Once helped build Remedy Entertainment‘s confidence that the game would work.

Speaking to the Washington Post, Lake admitted that Remedy’s latest title pushes the envelope in terms of in-game weirdness and how well it might be received by audiences. The weirdness in question includes the horror title suddenly shifting into a full-blown musical at times, among other things.

However, after seeing the reception that Everything Everywhere All At Once, – NME‘s 2022 film of the year – Wake says the studio’s confidence in the game got a major boost. “We were already really far into making this, but it gave me confidence into understanding that what we’re doing here, we are doing these things at the right time.”

Lake expanded on Alan Wake 2‘s interesting blend of genres, inspired by other forms of entertainment: “I love film, music, reading books, and there are thrilling inspirational things happening, but I feel there are bigger leaps happening within games. With Alan Wake especially, I have discovered that I can tap into these other mediums, and they can be seen as elements inside games, not as a separate medium. All of these mediums can combine to create something new and exciting, something more than the sum of its parts.”

Alan Wake 2 – which has been named NME‘s game of the year – scored a glowing five-star review from Vikki Blake, who wrote for NME: “Few games, if any, ramp up the tension as masterfully as Alan Wake 2, and beyond the handful of safe havens sprinkled across the locations, you’ll rarely feel safe, its shockingly effective sound design making it difficult to relax at all.”