By 2010, players had their choice of heroes in action-adventure games. From space marines and treasure hunters to assassins and powerful mages, it seemed there were few adventurous professions the medium had yet to explore. But on the heels of creating two projects with a Punisher-like detective turned vigilante at the helm, Remedy Entertainment set about crafting a character whose occupation wasn’t exactly video game-friendly—a novelist. In writer Alan Wake, the Max Payne studio designed an inventive new protagonist, one whom audiences could more easily relate to. It took a long while for Remedy’s vision to fully form, though, as at the start of its production, Wake had far more in common with the company’s previous leading man. Yet, the iterative process of a lengthy development cycle saw the writer evolve into the dynamic figure many a gamer has come to know and love. To see their vision through to completion, Remedy’s developers were forced to follow the instructions they set for players in Alan Wake’s nightmarish journey through darkness—follow the light. Still, the path forward proved difficult to navigate as an open-world game took on a linear structure, all while the studio altered its managerial approach more than halfway through production. Out of this rather tumultuous period came an instant cult classic, which fans remain eager to see return in some capacity. This is the history of Alan Wake.