Remedy’s Alan Walk 2 which was released last year turned out to be a huge commercial success for the studio. Remedy’s latest sequel received positive reviews from critics and also got nominated for several Game of the Year awards.
Most of the game’s success had to do with its unique gameplay mechanics. Due to such elements, players are sure to remember Saga Anderson’s famous Case Board. Saga’s Case Board is now an integral part of the gameplay and players find it useful in tracking their progress through the game. However, this was not always the case so with the Case Board.
Alan Wake 2’s original Case Board was reworked
During the GDC 2024 panel discussion centered around “Making Linear Story Playable: The Narrative Design of Alan Wake 2”, the developers threw some interesting details about the changes made in the game during the development phase.
During one part of the interview which focused on Saga’s Case Board, associate game director Simon Wasselin and narrative designer Molly Maloney revealed some secrets about how the Case Board’s mechanics had to be changed just before the game was launched.
The developers surprisingly spilled the beans that Saga’s Case Board originally had much more difficult mechanics during development. The Case Board was full of loose questions that were in no particular order and there were high chances of getting connections wrong, for the players.
All of this was done to make the gameplay more exciting. However, early game testers found it to be completely opposite. The response from these game testers regarding the Case Board was overwhelmingly negative and they found the options in the Case Board to be highly anxiety-inducing.
As the Case Board came with many options, the game testers always had the feeling of missing out on something important for the investigation and this made it difficult for them to move on. The developers finally addressed these issues and completely changed the Case Board mechanics to make it similar to an in-game journal.
Is Remedy’s Alan Wake 2 profitable yet
With the rise in the production costs of AAA games in the past couple of years, Alan Walk 2 also had a high production cost which was estimated to be at $75 million. The game was financed by Epic Games Publishing and they will take 100% of the revenue until they make their money back, after which it will be split equally with Remedy.
Despite being Remedy Entertainment’s fastest-selling title ever, the game has not turned a profit yet. The game has managed to sell 1.3 million units and has roughly generated around $60 million in revenue.
Following the revelation of the game’s sales units, Remedy’s stock also took a hit. Therefore although the game will turn profit eventually, the rise in the development costs increases this cycle to several months or even years.
