How does Remedy Entertainment convince billion-dollar companies to make its esoteric games?
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Remedy Entertainment employs over 360 people.
In other words, Remedy Entertainment is, indisputably, a triple-A video-game studio.
The titles that bear their imprint are experimental, idiosyncratic, proudly auteur-ish, and deeply strange.
They take nods from crime fiction, noir films, and speculative cosmic horror.
Remedy has never supplied a microtransaction storefront; until very recently, they hadnt even made a first-person shooter.
Instead, the company has built a one-of-a-kind portfolio.
(Its notallbad for Wake.
But it was 2001sMax Paynethat gave the public its initial glimpse of the Remedy Method.
In many ways,Max Paynehas lots in common with its contemporariesDoomandUnreal.
ButMax Paynealso possesses a stylishness and a profound inner sorrow that those games garish vengeance-porn could never articulate.
The streets are empty void of anything but neon signs and a relentless, sleety snow.
Remedy was aiming for art, and they came surprisingly close.
Lake told me that the development ofAlan Wakewas the hardest thing the studio has ever done.
But then you become lost with the follow-up.
The company spent five years attempting to consummate their vision, which renderedAlan Wakeinto a decidedly meta product.
When we finallygotthere withAlan Wake,it felt very personal, added Lake.
The fact that the creative process is such a core theme of the game made it special.
Thats the thing I find most profound about the Remedy brand.
A whole lot of manpower is required to create the video games of Remedys scale.
How does the entire staff stay in lockstep on an idea so precise?
After all, it only takes one inauthentic element to shatter the whole facade.
Its a lot of work.
It took most ofControlsproduction time to communicate the vision.
It was even harder withAlan Wake 2,because of COVID.
That was when we could bounce around ideas fluently in the same space.
(Weve been very free to do what we want, he said.
We get feedback, but its feedback on the original vision we pitched them.)
Still, as it currently stands,Alan Wake 2will mark the end of their collaboration.
Its a proposition that grows more daunting by the year.
The video game industry has become incredibly polarized.
There is no way Remedy could ever keep up with those numbers while maintaining its own principles.
Thats the pitch Remedy has brought to every publisher.
So far, its working out.
The budgets for making games are getting higher and higher.
Thats one thing that makes me firmly believe that were doing the right thing at Remedy.
We need to take risks.
We need to be bold.
If we make games that stand out.
Thats how we can get attention.
Lake told me hes excited to have some time to himself now thatAlan Wake 2is finally out the door.
