Back during E3, I cited Alan Wake as my favorite game shown at the Microsoft press conference, almost entirely because of its atmosphere. I loved the lighting, the fire effects, and the way the world fell apart in front of the player. But I was the first to admit I didn't know much beyond the surface level concept of an author in a horror game in the "Pacific Northwest" (also known as Ray Barnholt country) whose nightmares may or may not be coming true.

So I tracked down developer Remedy's managing director, Matias Myllyrinne, and head of franchise development, Oskari Häkkinen, to get more specific about the game's structure and features that weren't shown in the E3 demo.

1UP: You mentioned before the interview that you want the game to have a lot of cliffhangers. How does that tie into the structure -- will we see the "previously on" and "tonight on" recap scenes [from the E3 demo] in the game itself?

Matias Myllrinne: We have a lot of pop culture references in there -- some call them clichés; we like to think of them as classics. And really, a TV series format fits for the storytelling, the stylization, and the pacing of the story, so those cliffhangers are an integral part of the narrative. We use storytelling methods from TV such as, as you already mentioned, "previously on" or "in tonight's episode," and then we foreshadow something that's about to happen.

And it also helps us to remind the player of relevant story material because the story arcs are fairly long and there's a complex story. That way we can pull out certain things and accentuate those, like "remember, by the way this happened," or "this was what really happened"...and it opens things up a bit more.

Oskari Hakkinen: I was just going to say that it really gives the opportunity for those gamers that don't play every day, to put the controller down and not play for three or four days. And when they pick up the controller again, they can hit the "previously on" to remember where they were and continue their mission.

MM: But that being said, I hope that they sit on their couch and they just, kind of, do what I do with Lost: "just one more episode, just one more episode."

1UP: Do you call them "episodes?"

MM: Yes. We're really thinking of this game as "Season 1."

Click the image above to check out all Alan Wake screens.

1UP: I've heard some people compare the game to Alone in the Dark, and the episodic structure ties into that as well. Do you worry about or embrace that comparison?

MM: We really... we don't really look at other games that much for our source of inspiration. I think we borrow from other forms of popular culture. We look at films, music, books... so a TV series works out well. Twin Peaks has been a favorite. So if you look at the location you can see that kind of quaint, small town with deep, dark secrets underneath. Or even the Gilmore Girls. I mean, it's a very different kind of story -- but the location is similar -- so we pull from other forms of entertainment. And clearly a writer whose work is coming true is a classic as well.

1UP: I've also heard that the game originally featured an open world and now it doesn't. Can you talk about why that changed?

MM: We have a huge wide-open...space, so in that sense the areas are huge. But we wanted to control the pacing of the storytelling in a more structured way. We found that to build a thrill ride for the gamer it was much, much better to do it in a linear experience as opposed to an open world experience. We had a version of the game that was totally open world, and we played around with that, and we just weren't getting the kind of dramatic impact that we wanted since we didn't control everything.

OH: The thing in a story for us is that it's really [important] to give that story-driven experience, but the player will never feel like they're being pulled by strings, and there are lots of exploration opportunities -- the paths they take are very wide, and there's a lot [to find for those who] explore. So they'll never feel like they're being pulled by a string or running down a tube.

1UP: When the game shifted from an open world to a more linear game, was there anything else that changed along with that?

MM: No. I think we're very close to the core of what we set out to do, which was to tell a compelling psychological thriller and also to have an awesome use of light in gameplay. So, I think those are very close to what we set out to do. Of course, we iterated and iterated and polished and then tried different things -- it's just the way we work. We craft things from the ground up very carefully. When gamers put their hard-earned money down, hopefully they're having an awesome action experience.

1UP: Is there a day/night cycle?

MM: Yes. So the day/night cycle was a part of our simulation. We control the time of day to get as much drama out of each situation as possible, and the amount of light has gameplay significance... So as the world slides further and further into night, darkness becomes the thing to avoid.

Click the image above to check out all Alan Wake screens.

OH: Light's a combat tool for the player; it's also a safe-haven, and we have various different ways to use light sources. For instance, [you can use] the headlamps of a car, or you might need to man a turret or start a generator, for instance, to create yourself a safe-haven. Or use, for instance, a hand flare to create yourself a momentary safe-haven. Many, many, many clever forms of light.

1UP: Will ammo often be scarce in these situations?

OH: At times.

MM: You don't want to frustrate the player with inventory management, but sometimes it's nice to kind of turn the tables and to make sure that, you know, maybe you're in a bad situation where you don't necessarily have all the resources at your disposal. It becomes more about outsmarting your enemies as opposed to outgunning them. Alan Wake is very much an everyman -- he looks like a young Harrison Ford character who was pushed into an extreme situation.

OH: Wake believes that he can will his light source. When he's in a state of panic or fear and his friends have been taken, he doesn't really understand it. He's an everyman, but inside his state of panic or fear, he believes he can will his light source to burn brighter and thus burn away the darkness quicker. Is it all in his head or is it reality? That's up to the player to decide.

MM: And a lot of the story and the fiction revolves around subjective versus objective. Is it really happening or is it all in his head? We kind of play with that. It's an interesting theme.

Click the image above to check out all Alan Wake screens.

1UP: Will there be many puzzles that tie in with that, or is the game mostly action?

MM: We have a good diversity of different kinds of things for the player to do. There will be certain minigames...but in terms of puzzles, nothing that would be too frustrating for the gamer, nothing too complex. I think there's a lot of talk that there will be "problem solving." We hope that kind of emerges naturally because light is such a clear gameplay element -- like, if you need to position lamps, for example, to provide cover for yourself, or you need to start a generator and before you start the generator you need to go through [a specific path of lights]. But it should all emerge naturally out of the world as opposed to being bolted on after the fact.

OH: As Matias said, I see it as a form of puzzle -- to really use the light sources around you cleverly, whether it is moving a light source to create a protective barrier from this dark presence that's trying to attack you [or something else]. So that in itself is a puzzle, I think.

1UP: What about backtracking? Is it pretty much a straightforward game?

MM: We have some...because we control the day-and-night cycle, we might have a location that, say, isn't in the daytime [the second time you see it]. Maybe you've spoken to other non-player-characters near it or something like that and we want to place the player there when it's dark and it's stormy outside. And that's actually a very powerful tool because we've now made the player more vulnerable, but they also know the location. So we'll have some of that, but mostly, the kind of empty-level backtracking where you look for the key to open the lock -- that's not really a Remedy thing. We try to cut out the pieces of the game that aren't rewarding and to leave the really good parts in.

OH: You have an opportunity during the daytime, as well, to meet the working locals and get to know the town of Bright Falls. But there are going to be some dream and nightmare scenes, so you might backtrack in your memory, perhaps.