As fans of the acclaimed Alan Wake series, the Dead by Daylight team was eager to bring the eponymous writer into The Fog, where he’ll fight to survive alongside some of the horror genre’s most iconic characters. How might the Champion of Light navigate to a different sort of dark place?
We spoke with our Creative Director Dave Richard as well Remedy’s Creative Director Sam Lake, Principal Writer Clay Murphy, and Principal Character Artist John Crossland about bringing the bestselling author into The Fog.
Dave Richard's history with Alan Wake goes way back, during a time when Dead by Daylight was being developed. “In the early stages, we were working on a variety of horror titles that would eventually become Dead by Daylight,” explains Richard. “Alan Wake was such an interesting take on survival horror, and its atmosphere and narrative really struck our imagination. It became a classic for us that we would take inspiration from".
“There's a lot of overlap between Alan Wake and Dead by Daylight that makes them a natural pairing,” explains Alan Wake’s Principal Writer Clay Murphy. “On a surface level they're both about using light to escape a malevolent shadowy presence, but they share a larger theme of being trapped in a horror story, fighting your way through endless loops, collaboration in the face of darkness. These two go together like rusty hooks and terrified survivors!”
THE CHAMPION OF LIGHT
“When I think of Alan Wake, I think of the flashlight,” says Dave Richard, noting a crucial tool in both games. “It’s so interesting how he uses a flashlight in combat as a defensive and offensive mechanism. Survivors do the same thing in Dead by Daylight, and Alan is the Champion of Light. When the team began brainstorming Perk ideas, one that centered around flashlights was a no-brainer.”
“When the designer has their list of themes to explore, they’ll create a lot more Perks than we need,” he explains. “We had a list of between 8-10 Alan Wake Perks when we began working on the Chapter, and through a natural process – roundtables with designers, for instance – we narrowed down our favorites. For instance, a Perk might represent an interesting action we’d like to do, or a space in gameplay that’s currently underserved.”
Perks come in all shapes and sizes; some contribute to the metagame, while others help newcomers acclimate to the gameplay loop and core mechanics. Richard explains that the team considers all players while conceptualizing Perks, sharing deeper insight into the design and release process.
“We have a soft rule that one Perk should target novice players, one should be fun and kind of crazy, and one should be more competitive. Through lots of playtesting, the Perks evolve until we go from ten all the way down to 3. After that we polish the final 3, we go to PTB, do a final polish round, and release.”
With Alan having such an iconic look and personality, as brought to life by the excellent pair of actors Ilkka Villi and Matthew Porretta, it was important that to ensure that the character was authentically realized in the world of Dead by Daylight. “We were able to offer our already approved assets as a strong base to be built upon,” reveals Crossland, Alan Wake’s Principal Character Artist. “Then the Dead by Daylight team was able to add their style and make a seamless fit into their universe.”
DARK ART
Not only has Alan Wake cemented himself among the iconic video game horror characters, but his lore and mind-bending journey lends itself nicely to the existing mythology of Dead by Daylight.
“We were impressed by Behaviour Interactive from the early steps on in our collaboration,” reflects Sam Lake. “They take lore and character very seriously and they really wanted to understand Alan Wake and the supernatural lore of our fiction. And this is very important to us as well. What we realized together was that the setups and the lore of our two games and worlds are very compatible.
“Because Alan was already in the Dark Place, he is outside time,” says Dave Richard. “That’s a recurring narrative in our game as well. Once you’re in the world of The Entity, you can meet people from different time periods. The order they’ve been taken doesn’t matter. The Entity is out of time and space.”
“Having access to Alan Wake while he’s trapped in the Dark Place makes a lot of sense for our universe,” notes Richard. “Even though being trapped in The Entity’s Realms feels like a forever thing, we don’t know exactly when it fits in Alan’s timeline. It’s a mystery in both universes, so it can be canon in both universes.”
“Alan Wake is all about stories, so finding a way to tie the narratives together was important to us,” explains Remedy’s Clay Murphy. “Working alongside the writers of Dead by Daylight, we developed a story that brings the franchises into each other's orbit in an interesting way. It was a very exciting collaboration for us!”
It was equally exciting to hear Remedy talk about their own experiences in The Fog. “I personally prefer to play in Survivor,” reveals John Crossland. “I'm looking forward to seeing how Alan faces off against The Trapper – I think his Perk set is quite strong against him.”
As for how Dead by Daylight’s characters might fare in the world of Alan Wake? “Anna, The Huntress, would make a nice addition to Bright Falls,” says Clay Murphy. “She wears an animal mask, she throws hatchets at people. She'd fit right in!”
