Alan Wake, as we all know, took ten thousand years to develop. Much of its dev time was spent with very little public demonstration, and the game maintained a place in the public consciousness through pure hype alone. We asked developer Remedy if that was a help or hindrance, and whether it was difficult keeping the game under wraps.
"It wasn’t that hard. Honestly, it takes more effort to make announcements than to just keep quiet," explains writer Mikko Rautalahti. "Which isn’t to say there wasn’t a certain degree of frustration every once in a while, of course. It was a long time, no question. As for why it was kept under wraps, when there’s really nothing you can say besides 'hey, we're still working on it!' it’s just better to keep your mouth shut. I’m sure we’re all familiar with projects that people found increasingly difficult to take seriously, simply because you heard about them over and over again but a release date was either never set or kept getting pushed back. Familiarity breeds contempt, I guess.
"People first heard about Alan Wake in E3, 2005, and we got really great attention from the fans and the media, but as the years passed, of course that became an obstacle we had to overcome. Even though we only announced any kind of a release date at last year’s E3, the fact that we’d already popped up years earlier did create an expectation.
"But to some extent," he continues, "that worked to our advantage, because we got a certain degree of buzz by default -- you know, 'can it be good after all this time?' That kind of thing gets people talking. Of course, that would have backfired horrible if the game was disappointment, but now that the reviews are out and they’re very positive, I think I can safely say that it worked out well for us. But admittedly, it’s not the easiest position to be in, and if we’d been constantly in the limelight, the expectations would probably have been overwhelming."
Alan Wake is quite unique. It's not often a game can have such a lengthy, muted development time and not completely suck. Hats off to Remedy then, and we'll have more from Mikko Rautalahti later!
Contest:
10:40 AM on 05.14.2010 | 
Moreover, given how early the review copies for this went out (and the embargo was lifted), it seems they could have easily hit an earlier release window (why not stack it against GoW3 instead?). Now most of the review buzz is past, along with some of the mystery.
I finished Episode 2 last night (loved the cliffhanger). I think I've already figured out the twist from the Night Springs TV shows, since Remedy do love their post-modernism references, but the strength of the writing and pacing in general has been amazing so far.
My only nit-pick is that they shouldn't have started the story with that nightmare/tutorial and the daytime scenes needs a bit more 'freedom'...but everything else has been worth the wait.
will be getting this for sure but red dead looks like it will take up alot of my time.
Max Payne 2 was made quickly and was worse gameplay-wise and level-wise
Now, when A.Wake is out, i hope they take all the time they need to develop a follow up.
Marketing is by definition the lowest form of evidence. It should always be immediately discarded an attestation that would not otherwise exist if not for the financial inducement offered to command it. These types of statements always need independent 3rd party corroboration.
Occasionally even the Bible gets things correct - "And whenever you pray, don't be like the hypocrites who love to stand in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they will be seen by people. I tell you with certainty, they have their full reward!"
OH SNAP!
Riiiiiiiite... keep tellin' yourselves that.
Best regards, Katya, CEO of notebook dvd burner, iscsi san nas