Last week, Nordic Game 2024 kicked off its four-day industry event in Slagthuset, Malmö.
Developers across the Nordics descended on the centre, which would feature plenty for Remedy fans. On its final day, Petri Alanko was scheduled to take to the stage to talk about his experience designing Alan Wake 2's haunting soundtrack. Remedy, with five nominations and a strong track record, headed into the Nordic Game Awards held later that same evening.
Petri Alanko's Nordic Game Conversation
If you couldn't attend in person, Nordic Game has been uploading each of the panels, with Petri's conversation now archived on their YouTube channel. For the forty-minute discussion, he was joined by Orvar Säfström, acting as host for the organisers, as he explored the creative process behind Alan Wake 2's audio. You can watch the full conversation below...
Nordic Game Awards 2024
After a hugely successful awards ceremony, Remedy walked away at the end of the evening with three trophies; Best Art, Best Audio and the highly-prized Nordic Game of the Year.
With tough competition across each of the categories, Nordic Games provided a brief description of what stood out for the winning title for each award. For Best Art, Paula Manrique, host of the awards, read, "The game has already been awarded multiple times and deserves to be recognised once again. Years of hard work made this game into what it is today. Amazing to play and visually stunning. The winner is Alan Wake 2 by Remedy Entertainment.
Accepting the award was for the studio was Camilla Vidén (Talent Acquisition Specialist at Remedy) and Valeria Rossi (Talent Acquisition Lead at Remedy.)
Taking the microphone, Valeria took the duty of representing the studio, "Thank you everyone, on behalf of the team, the whole Alan Wake 2 development team. They're currently working hard to make the expansions, and we want to thank, especially, our art director, Janne Pulkanen, and all the artists that are working to make these amazing games that we have. And also, special thanks to Epic Games Publishing for supporting us, and good luck to all the other nominees. Thank you so much!"
Though it wasn't too long before Remedy was on stage again, this time for Best Audio. "The audio in this game takes the concept of the game and brings it to the next level" describes Paula. "The horror vibe that the audio is creating gets you in the right ambience for the game. The music makes a perfect soundtrack to listen to on its own as well. Which makes this a clear winner in this category."
Camilla returned to the stage alongside Petri Alanko (Composer for Remedy). With the audio being his department, Petri took the microphone for a short but sweet acceptance speech: "Thanks. On behalf of the wonderful audio team and everybody at Remedy, thank you!" The microphone was then passed to Camilla to follow up, "Hello. I would like to thank our audio director, Richard Lapington and our fantastic audio team. I know he also wanted me to say 'thank you to Red Pipe, to Dynamedion, as well as Poets of the Fall.' Thank you!"
The final award was for Game of the Year, with each of the nominees receiving praise in commentary as gameplay footage was shown on the big screen. As the list of nominations was shown, Nordic Games describes the game as being "a masterclass in the survival horror genre, elevated by top-of-the-line art and audio design. Remedy takes their series to new heights while staying faithful to their own third-person action style." The award was presented by the previous year's category winner Marjaana Auranen and Sahin Cengiz (Red Stage Entertainment) who welcomed the full Remedy away team to the stage.
Taking the microphone, Camilla shares the studio's gratitude once again, "Thank you so much, again. Thank you so much on behalf of the whole team, it's an honour, to get this award and we just want to thank everyone in both offices we have, in Finland and Sweden. And yeah, also thanks to Epic Games Publishing and just... thank you!
Writing on LinkedIn after the event, the studio followed up with a selection of photographs from the event, accompanied with the caption "Thank you Nordic Game for three awards for Alan Wake 2 - Best Art, Best Audio, and Nordic Game of the Year! It's really something special to be recognised in your home region like this. Thank you to everyone who came and said hello to us at the conference - hope to see you next year as well!"
Photographs from Nordic Game 2024
The following photographs were shared via Remedy's LinkedIn page following the closure of this year's event. The selection features the away team with their trophies and on the show floor.
About Nordic Game. Nordic Game is a four-day gaming industry event held on May 21st - 24th in Slagthuset, Malmö, Sweden. This year, the convention celebrates its twentieth anniversary and rich history; throughout the years, it has been regarded as a "home turf" meeting place for game developers in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, inviting both start-ups and long-running studios.
