While in Los Angeles for The Game Awards 2023, IGN invited the writers behind two of the biggest launches of the year; Sam Lake (Creative Director at Remedy, with Alan Wake 2), John McAdam (Senior Narrative Directior at Insomiac Games, with Spider-Man 2), and Jon Paquette (Narrative Director at Insomniac Games, with Spider-Man 2), to their studio to dive deeper into their craft.
in their roundtable discussion, Lake and McAdam talk about a range of topics including the changes to marketing in the industry; how shorter marketing times change the structure of promoting a game and how talking about a game feels freerer closer to launch, to narrative passions such as exploring and creating multi-layred mysteries in their work. They even talk about Sam stepping into the digital world with his portrayal of Alex Casey.
WIth both developers dealing with newly launched games, they also touch on the impact on working on a large and anticipated title and life outside work, including the desire to rediscover familiar hobbies. For Sam, this is returning to his list of "to play" titles and reesttablishing his love for reading.
In the second video, Lake and Paquette talk about the common factor between their sequels; the introduction of a secondary protagonist. With Spider-Man 2, the action follows both Peter Parker and Miles Morales. WIth Alan Wake 2, FBI Agent Saga Anderson is brought in to inverstigte a series of serial killings in the Bright Falls area.
