Remedy's Matias Myllyrinne

One, that's a good question, but two, we've had similar experiences. For example, Oz, our head of franchise development, was playing the build and his wife sat there for three hours watching him play, enjoying it. So it's interesting we're getting that - it says something about the story, the mood and the atmosphere which is really good.

For us, fundamentally, I hope we'll appeal to two types of gamers - those who want to get into the thriller and the story, they can go around and explore the world around them, and go in-depth. There's a tonne of explorable content and optional story that you can add to the fiction and find out more.

For example, you can use the TV sets in the world, and this time around we wanted to do something slightly different so there are actually live action actors there, and you'll get more reflections on perhaps happier times in Alan Wake's life when perhaps things weren't so bad... or then, when things turn more nightmarish, glimpses of something - and we're playing with that line of whether the stuff happening on the other side of the screen is true, or...

So there's a tonne of stuff, and manuscript pages to find, radio shows and stuff - those people who really want to play the action will get the skeleton of that, for want of a better description. The story will still make sense, but we're not force-feeding you tonnes of stuff if you prefer to just enjoy the combat and so forth.

So hopefully we'll appeal to both kinds of players - with Max Payne we saw that some actually dug the film noir story, and wanted to enjoy that, while for others it was mostly about the Hong Kong action. I think even this time around we're taking elements from popular culture which are probably familiar to the wider audience, and then bringing them into games and hopefully making something unique and new.

For example, the pacing is very much that of a TV series - that's something that Lost has done very well, pacing a thriller in a TV series. But then the setting, the All-American small town, quirky, with deep, dark secrets underneath - our town of Bright Falls has echoes of Twin Peaks. And having elements like the birds and corn fields, we're tipping our hats to Alfred Hitchcock and masters like that, while Stephen King has written quite a bit about a writer as the main character. Plus of course we needed to have the maze from The Shining...

So we're doing a lot to bring those into games, and from that perspective... it'll be its own story, and stand on its own two feet, but there'll be enough references there for folks who just want to enjoy the narrative and thrill ride of the story - however, in the end, it is an action game from the guys that made Max Payne...

I think different kinds of games serve a different kind of need - there's a need to compete in something like Modern Warfare 2, while something like the desktop tower defence gets me going in a very different way.

I think they have the potential to become much larger that an individual game or series of games - I think if we're successful we'll give back to popular culture where we've gotten inspired from it. And hopefully the biggest compliment for us will be if somebody takes inspiration from our work and takes it on... whether it's games or film, or whatever kind of entertainment.

That would be the most that we can hope for.