Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we begin our annual spooky series in a little place called Bright Falls, with Remedy's 2010 horror adventure Alan Wake. We place the game in its time a bit (not that long ago) and talk about how that first episode presents itself. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.
Sections played:
Episode 1
Issues covered: reviewing our spooky season, feeling like a 2010 game, the Alan Wake DLC for Control, hard to compare with other developers, doubling down on a hook, connecting their games together, featuring the preoccupations of one writer, reviewing 2010, an open world game, systemic survival games, thinking about some open horror games, empowerment and lack of dread, being close to a visual narrative, stitching together narrative, simple combat, graphic novel treatments and tv treatments, iterating on what they do well, bullet time, theming around narrative, making you a little unsettled, thin interactivity, leaning on Stephen King, the Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks connection, the early ages of narrative design and adding writing, pacing out in an open world version, cross-pollination, licensed music, the diner scene, what is reality, too many puzzle boxes, not worrying about the threads too much, the Riddler writes in, Brett's Arkham City Riddler progress, having a controller for the first time, the mouse and the flash-in-the-pan, a great first controller game.
Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Karl Stewart, Arkham Asylum, Resident Evil (series), Silent Hill 2, Dead Space, Eternal Darkness, Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines, Remedy Entertainment, Max Payne (series), Quantum Break, Control, Sam Lake, Arnold Schwarzeneggar, X-Files, Twin Peaks, House of Leaves, Bioshock 2, God of War III, Mass Effect 2, Starcraft 2, Super Mario Galaxy 2, Just Cause 2, Fable III, Halo: Reach, Dead Rising 2, Red Dead Redemption, Fallout: New Vegas, Limbo, Heavy Rain, Quantic Dream, Amnesia: The Dark Descent, Penumbra, Deadly Premonition, Epic Mickey, Darksiders, AC: Brotherhood, MGS: Peacewalker, PSP, World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, The Long Dark, Evil Within (series), idTech, Ghostwire: Tokyo, Shenmue, Stephen King, The Shining, Misery, Blue Velvet, Dean Stockwell, Kyle MacLachlan, Dennis Hopper, Microsoft Studios, The Coconut Song, Reservoir Dogs, Stuck in the Middle with You, Practical Magic, LOST, S., Doug Dorst, American Nightmare, Calamity Nolan, Geoff, Mark Hamill, LucasArts, LodeRunner, DOOM (1993), Quake, Ken Schoemake, SSX, Tony Hawk Pro Skater (series), Final Fantasy IX, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia.
Next time:
Episodes 2 and 3? Maybe also 4? We'll see
Twitch: brettdouville or timlongojr, instagram:timlongojr, Twitter: @timlongojr and @devgameclub
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DevGameClub@gmail.com
DGC Ep 387: Beyond Good and Evil (part four)
DGC Ep 388: Final Fantasy Tactics (part one)
DGC Ep 386: Beyond Good & Evil (part three)
DGC Ep 385: Beyond Good & Evil (part two)
DGC Ep 384: Beyond Good and Evil (part one)
DGC Ep 383: Homeworld Bonus Interview with Alex Garden
DGC Ep 382: The Last Express (part two)
DGC Ep 381: The Last Express (part one)
DGC Ep 380: Prince of Persia
DGC Ep 379: Another World
DGC Ep 378: Alan Wake Bonus Interview with Sam Lake!
DGC Ep 377: Homeworld (part four)
DGC Ep 376: Homeworld (part three)
DGC Ep 375: Homeworld (part two)
DGC Ep 374: Homeworld (part one)
DGC Ep 373: At Year's End
DGC Ep 372: Trespasser (part three)
DGC Ep 371: Trespasser (part two)
DGC Ep 370: Trespasser (part one)
DGC Ep 369: Alan Wake (part four)
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