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In an in-depth interview, Häkkinen discussed Alan Wake, bringing the game to PC, and their brand new XBLA release Alan Wake’s American Nightmare. He also offered various insights into the industry that Train2Game students will no doubt find very interesting.

It’s a big interview, so we’ve divided it into two parts. Part two sees Häkkinen digital distribution, life at Remedy Entertainment and offers advice on getting a job in the industry. Read it below here on The Train2Game Blog, or on the Train2Game Scribd page.

Part one of our interview with Remedy Entertainment’s Oskari Häkkinen is here. As usual, leave your comments here on The Train2Game Blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

With Alan Wake’s American Nightmare being released on XBLA, and coming to PC via retail and Steam, what do you think the future is for digital distribution?

As a studio we’re looking at digital distribution quite seriously, and we’re learning a lot about it. Hence we have titles coming out on i OS, like Death Rally, and we’re moving it to other digital space as well. Now, Alan Wake’s American Nightmare is coming out on XBLA which is another digital channel, Alan Wake is coming out for Steam as well. We’re not forgetting retail, obviously Alan Wakeis coming out in a box, the PC version coming out retail on March 2^nd.

But we definitely feel that digital is going to be important in the future and that for us as a studio it’s extremely important at this time to learn and understand what digital means and what are the basic things that need to be done in a digital space, and one of those things is of course listen to the gamer. The gamer plays and gives you feedback. Analyse that feedback and see if other people are of the same opinion then react to it. Think as a video game more as a service that you’re constantly providing, it’s a gift that keeps giving and if you keep giving, the gamers will keep giving back to you too.

And does digital distribution allow studios to take more risks? As they don’t need to spend years on one thing, they can push out a game in a shorter amount of time and see if it works.

It depends on the type of game, but I certainly think so for certain games, or for specific genres it works exceptionally well. Then if it gets a good reception and people want more then keep doing more.

A little about you now, what does your role at Remedy actually involve?

I’m the Head of Franchise Development, quite a mouthful. What that means is I’m in charge of our franchises at Remedy. For Alan Wake there as a book, a strategy guide, an art book, we had a music CD, we had the cinematic score, so all those little bits and bobs that hopefully the fans out there love. They are part of the franchise in some shape or form and have at one point or another come through my desk. Then also, kind of being part of the overall thinking of where the franchise is going and making sure that stays true to what we’ve always wanted to do with Alan Wake.

So, when we do things like Alan Wake’s American Nightmare, how does that fit into the universe of Alan Wake? What are the things we want to achieve? And one of the things we want to achieve is that it’s pick up and play for anyone. What we hopefully do is get more people in Alan Wake as a franchise, to give Alan Wake as a franchise more possibilities. But then at the same time you’ve already got people that are invested in the fiction and you want to make sure that you’re pleasing them also.

So it’s little things like that which mean I’ll be part of discussions about how to keep our current fans happy, you know, you don’t want to lose them, they’ve already been loyal. And how do we perhaps get more fans to give Alan Wake a brighter future.

Fans are of course very important to a studio, but what would you say are the other key values of Remedy?

Cinematic is very important, character centric with a lead character. Action; with Max Payne it was about Hong Kong action and slow motion bullet time, with Alan Wake it was about using the light and darkness as the elements, action elements that are familiar to people but haven’t been seen in video games before.  Then of course being story driven goes without saying, pushing the envelope telling stories in video games, every one of our games has taught us something, taught us new methods of telling stories in games. With Alan Wake the episodic structure, we feel is an excellent way to tell stories in video games. Those are the kind of basic key principles that makes a Remedy game.

So if an upcoming game developer wanted to join Remedy, what advice would you give them about getting into the studio, or indeed, the studio as a whole?

That’s an open ended question because it isn’t specific to the role. There’s a tonne of different roles in a studio. If they’re fantastic at animation, just knock on our door. We’re looking for an Art Director at the moment so if you’re fantastic at art just knock on our door. And we’re looking for another writer for the writing team, so if writing is your thing and you like what we’ve done with Max Payne, with Alan Wake, you see the type of writing we do for our games, so if that appeals to you then apply for that. We have a number of roles open.

But Remedy is a very small team – a lot of people don’t know that – we have about 60 people. Max Payne 1 was made with about 25 people, Max Payne 2 with about 25 people, Alan Wake peaked at about 55. So, we’ve grown a bit and we’re growing a little bit more but we consider ourselves a smaller developer. The idea is never to grow to 200, even 100 is scary for us, we want to keep very core competence so that every single recruitment that we make is a carefully thought out decision of what that person brings to the team and how that person fits in.

We don’t expect to lose people either, so we expect to bring people on board and be able to give them enough creative freedom to be happy for a very long time.  Very few people have left Remedy since they’ve started, and we’ve been going on since 1995, so we’ve gradually grown extremely slowly to maintain that core competence.  We feel that if every person on the team understands exactly what we’re doing, and what are the principles of making a Remedy Game, that’s great. But as soon as you go over 100 you don’t know the person that’s sitting next door to you.

Thanks for your time

Alan Wake is available via Steam now, the PC is released via retail on March 2^nd, and Alan Wake’s American Nightmare is available from XBLA now.

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To be in with a chance of receiving a CS:GO beta key, visit the Counter-Strike blog and follow the link to complete a survey using Steam. The survey asks questions based on your previous experience with Counter-Strike, favourite weapons and some other more general information.

Valve are keen to state that there are no wrong answers, and it’s likely that they’ll need CS: GO beta testers from a variety of different backgrounds.

“Over the coming months we will make selections from the survey participants. Sometimes we might add experienced players, other times new players. Sometimes 1.6 players, sometimes CSS players, sometimes people who have played neither.” said the Counter-Strike blog post.

Valve plan to expand the CS: GO beta as it goes on, with the idea that it’ll eventually transition into being the full game

In an interview with The Train2Game Blog , Valve’s Chet Faliszek said that beta testing is an important part of the game development process for CS:GO, and ultimately it’s player feedback that’ll drive the eventual full release date.

“It’s really important to us because we’re going to let that drive the release date,” Faliszek told us

“Because we’re really looking to get the feedback from the community over the changes we’ve made. We’ve brought over some stuff that was good from Counter-Strike: Source and we’ve brought over some stuff that was good from 1.6, so it’s going to be interesting to see how the communities react” the Valve writer added.

Read The Train2Game Blog interview with Chet Faliszek on Counter-Strike: Global Offensive here.

Keep reading The Train2Game Blog for the latest beta testing opportunities.

Will you be attempting to grab a CS: GO beta key?

Leave your comments on The Train2Game Blog, or on The Train2Game Forum.

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The good news is that the Starhawk beta is now open to all PlayStation 3 users. To find out how to get involved, visit the PlayStation Blog. Developer Lightbox describe the beta as a “crucial step” as they test game balance, server traffic and general bugs

Find out more about the third person shooter in the Starhawk open beta trailer below.

Beta testing is an excellent way for Train2Game students, especially those on the Games QA Tester course to practice their bug hunting skills. Not only that, but in an interview with the Train2Game blog, Trion Worlds Senior QA Tester Karl Tars said that beta testing is potentially a way to get into the industry.

The Train2Game Blog will be sure to keep you up to date with the latest beta testing opportunities.

So Train2Game, will you be getting involved with the StarHawk public beta?

Leave your comments here on The Train2Game Blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

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It’s a big interview, so we’ve divided it into two parts. Part one sees Häkkinen discussing the design and development of the Alan Wake games. Read it below here on The Train2Game Blog, or on the Train2Game Scribd page.

Part two of The Train2Game Blog interview with Oskari Häkkinen is here. As usual, leave your comments here on The Train2Game Blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

When it started in development, Alan Wake was going to be an open world title, what pushed Remedy into streamlining the game?

As a vision for Alan Wake it was always a thriller; it was one of the high level visions that we had to do the first thriller in video games, horror has been known in video games but there’d never been a thriller. Certainly that vision stayed the same, but as you said, it was announced as an open world title and that changed into a more linear structure. The reason for that was because we wanted to do the first thriller in video games, and we found that we didn’t have enough control in the open world setting. So when you have the player turning up to a love scene in a monster truck you know that you’ve got something going on that’s not quite tapping into the emotions that you want to create this thriller. So we went for more linear level design with Alan Wake after some time with trying open world, and the game is certainly better for it.

The PC version of Alan Wake is finally here, but why has it come so much later than the Xbox 360 version? And has developing it for PC provided Remedy with any extra challenges?

Yes, it’s been just under two years since Alan Wake came out for Xbox 360. Alan Wake was originally announced as a title for Xbox 360 and PC, but somewhere along the line the stars became unaligned for the PC version, unfortunately. But I will say this; for us, we’ve always wanted to do the PC version, it’s something that as soon as we got the blessing from Microsoft to do, we started on immediately. It’s taken about five months of development.

We really wanted to do justice to the PC version, and we’ve worked really hard on bringing it up to speed with what PC gamers are expecting from a PC game coming out in 2012. So we’ve done a lot of improvements – higher fidelity, higher resolutions, even gone so far as changing some of the textures to improve their resolutions. We’re supporting features like stereoscopic 3D, like multi-screen, we’ve added in features that were long sought after on the Xbox version like ‘Remove Hud’ and FOV.

We’ve done a lot of work, and I think that PC gamers out there that unfortunately weren’t able to get their hands on Alan Wake at the same time as when the Xbox version came out will see how important it is for us to do the PC version, how important it is for us to do it right for them.

Alan Wake’s American Nightmare, the new release from Remedy, is much more action orientated that the original. What is the story behind deciding to move in this direction?

It actually started from the arcade action mode. We were looking at some of the things people were saying about Alan Wake and the story was universally loved, the characters were loved, the atmosphere, the setting…but like you said, some people said they would’ve liked more action.

So After Alan Wake we white box out these levels and said to the team “Go wild, we don’t know how we’re going to use this stuff but maybe it inspires some ideas for something in the future for Alan Wake.”  The thing is, we did that and it turns out it’s a tonne of fun and we’re all playing at the office saying “This is great, let’s get this out to people! It’d be a perfect fit for XBLA.” And that’s fine, but story at the end of the day is part of our DNA. So Sam Lake, our Creative Director and Lead Writer, decided that “OK, we can do this, I’m going to think up and create a story mode for the universe of this and how it would fit in.” And of course using Night Springs as a channel for that, it made perfect sense to go wild with the enemies and wild with the weapons.

You mentioned Alan Wake’s American Nightmare came from a splurge of creativity, was that from an internal game jam or were the team just given a chance to do what they like? Is it good for a game developer to go nuts and do what they want?

This was definitely a case of telling the team, “Do what you want. Every thought and crazy idea you’ve had, now is your time to give it a go in these white box levels.” And of course there was a tonne of ideas that have always been brewing there, and those ideas came out in those levels. Those were things that were a little bit too wild for the original game, but fit in here perfectly. I think giving people the opportunity and the freedom to show skill is something that we at Remedy are very conscious about allowing, and I certainly think that it spurs very good and creative things.

How did the design team go about writing not the game script itself,  but the Night Springs TV shows and the manuscript pages, and isn’t the narrative Alan Wake finds on the pages a little different in American Nightmare?

Um, yes. So in Alan Wake, Wake is finding pages of a novel he apparently wrote, but he doesn’t remember writing. And every time he finds a page and reads it, those events that are described on there seemingly come true. So in Alan Wake, it’s fiction that’s dictating Wake in a way. He’s learned a lot since we saw him last, and he’s learned to use fiction to his advantage.

The manuscript pages are also part of the optional story content in American Nightmare that really connects the dots to the first game, and the overall fiction.

Part two of The Train2Game Blog interview with Oskari Häkkinen is here.

Alan Wake’s American Nightmare is available to download from XBLA now. Alan Wake PC is available to download via Steam, and is released at retail by Nordic Games from March 2^nd.

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That’s according to comments from Remedy Head of Franchise Development Oskari Häkkinen, who was speaking to The Train2Game Blog in a soon to be published interview.

“This was definitely a case of telling the team, “Do what you want. Every thought and crazy idea you’ve had, now is your time to give it a go in these white box levels.” Häkkinen told The Train2Game Blog about the origins of Alan Wake’s American Nightmare.

“And of course there was a tonne of ideas that have always been brewing there, and those ideas came out in those levels. Those were things that were a little bit too wild for the original game, but fit in here perfectly.” he continued, before adding that allowing game developers to let their creative juries flow can be a great thing for a studio.

“I think giving people the opportunity and the freedom to show skill is something that we at Remedy are very conscious about allowing, and I certainly think that it spurs very good and creative things.” said the Remedy man.

And as part of The Train2Game Blog’s huge interview with Remedy, Häkkinen suggested that developers need to see games as a service rather than a one-off product.

“Think a video game more as a service that you’re constantly providing, it’s a gift that keeps giving and if you keep giving, the gamers will keep giving back to you too.” he said.

The Train2Game Blog interview with Remedy Head of Franchise Development Oskari Häkkinen will be published soon.

What are your thoughts on Häkkinen’s comments? How important is the occasional opportunity to go wild to game developers?

Leave your comments here on The Train2Game Blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

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And Sony believes that the PlayStation Vita already represents next-gen consoles and gamers are going to love it.

agreed: “We have a truly next-gen piece of hardware and a great software line-up,” Sony’s senior VP of Worldwide Studios Europe Michael Denny told CVG.

“There’s no question that gamers have been waiting for something new, something that is truly next-gen, so certainly we expect to start with people who care about their games to want a PlayStation Vita.” he continued.

“You look at the specs of the hardware in terms of a portable device… there’s nothing out there like it – there’s nothing that competes with it. It really is a great device, but when you marry with that the great software – 50 titles announced so far – I think it really will appeal to core gamers.

“But going forward, I think it has enough about it with social connectivity and the touch screens to appeal to a wider audience down the tracks.” Denny concluded.

As previously reported by The Train2Game Blog, indie games look set to have a future on the PlayStation Vita, with Sony handing smaller studios development kits for the portable console.

Indeed, Train2Game students on work placements at Double Eleven are among those developing games for the PlayStation Vita.

Check out the Train2Game Blog for more PlayStation Vita news.

Have you already picked up a PlayStation Vita? If so what are your initial impressions?

Leave your comments here on The Train2Game Blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

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Established by Martin Caine in 2009,Retroburn is an indie developer who works with a number of freelancers and contributors (working for profit share upon completion of games) to create small scale indie games for a number of platforms – Xbox Live Indie Games, PC, Windows Phone 7, iOS and Android.  The studio is currently preparing their first full game release, Positron.

Martin Caine, Director of Retroburn Game Studios explains the reason why the studio has joined TIGA.

“Being an indie developer and navigating the waters of new markets can be a daunting prospect. Here at Retroburn Game Studios we have tried to build a professional image and hope that our brand can take off in 2012 with the release of our first few games.” he said.

“Joining TIGA adds to our professionalism and in turn provides us access to a wide range of benefits which will help us establish ourselves in a competitive market. Many of the world’s finest games developers are based right here in the UK and they provide us with inspiration.” Caine continued.

“TIGA not only protects the interests of independent developers including small indies like ourselves.” The Retroburn Director added.

And TIGA CEO Dr. Richard Wilson welcomed the organisation to TIGA.

“TIGA fights for the interests of game developers and digital publishers in order to make the UK the best place in the world to do games business.” he said.

“Our aim to is to support the growth and viability of more independent content creators and digital publishers and so we are delighted to welcome Retroburn Game Studios to the TIGA network.” Dr. Wilson added.

For the latest TIGA news, keep reading The Train2Game Blog.

What are your thoughts on Retroburn joining TIGA?

Leave your comments here on The Train2Game Blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

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That’s according to Oskari Häkkinen Head of Franchise Development at Alan Wake developer Remedy, who was speaking to the Train2Game Blog in a huge interview that’s set to be published later this week.

“We definitely feel that digital is going to be important in the future and that for us as a studio it’s extremely important at this time to learn and understand what digital means and what are the basic things that need to be done in a digital space.” responded Häkkinen when asked about  the future of digital distribution.

Alan Wake  was recently released on PC via Steam, and Alan Wake’s American Nightmare’s is soon to be released through Xbox Live Arcade.

And he added that digital gives developers the opportunity to listen to what gamers what from releases

“One of those things is of course listen to the gamer. The gamer plays and gives you feedback. Analyse that feedback and see if other people are of the same opinion then react to it.” said Häkkinen

“Think a video game more as a service that you’re constantly providing, it’s a gift that keeps giving and if you keep giving, the gamers will keep giving back to you too.” he added.

The Train2Game Blog interview with Remedy Head of Franchise Development Oskari Häkkinen is coming later this week, with Alan Wake, Alan Wake on PC, designing Alan Wake’s American Nightmare and much more discussed in-depth.

What are your thoughts on Häkkinen’s comments? Are games a service rather than a product? Which games do you think provide a good ‘service’?

Leave your comments here on The Train2Game Blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

The hottest new Indies in town: Commando Kiwi, Derp Studios, Digital Mage and Indigo Jam

With student teams beginning to perform as independent studios and working on a world-renowned IP, we caught up with the development teams to get a few choice words on the latest news and to get some more details on the games they are working on.

First on our list was Commando Kiwi.

Jonny Robinson, Commando Kiwi, said: “When we found out we’d be working on a game inspired by The Warlock of Firetop Mountain; we were all in shock, a few of us have read the book before so our minds were blown away with pure awesomeness! We’re working on a classic IP from legends in the game industry; Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson.”

Next we caught up with Derp Studios to hear their thoughts on working on a Fighting Fantasy title and the genre of game they’re designing.  We also got the lowdown on what it’s like to work remotely when designing games.

Nigel Clark, Derp Studios, said: “Our game is a gripping first-person RPG, a sequel to the second Fighting Fantasy gamebook, Citadel of Chaos.  Strategically combined combat with both melee and magic will only get you so far.  The player must decide the best course of action.  A true test of “fight or flight” awaits our players.”

“To combat the distance factor, we’ve utilised tools within Facebook, Subversion (SVN) and contact points within Train2Game and Epic Games, along with Skype conferences to maintain good team communication. Working as a team is challenging in the first place.  However with your team spread throughout the country it’s even more of a challenge.”

Our next destination was Casa del Digital Mage, where we asked: What do you want to achieve with your game?

Craig Moore, Digital Mage, said: “Digital Mage hopes to help the player truly become engrossed within the battlefields of Allansia by providing ease of use and an intuitive control system enabling quick decisions to control an army as a general should!”

..and what do players have in store should they buy it?

“An exciting, diverse, and adventurous team is sculpting a mobile experience that will keep you on the edge of your seat and keep you coming back for more, with lush graphics and a sweeping soundtrack, Digital Mage is using every last trick in the book to make this the best mobile strategy game available on any platform.”

Lastly we caught up with Indigo Jam, where we asked: What have you been designing and can you get us excited about it?

Indigo Jam, Deathtrap Dungeon, Action Adventure

Ben Stoneman, Indigo Jam, said: “Indigo Jam studios brings the Deathtrap Dungeon title to life with gameplay featuring a dark tale set in Allansia that leads you to a Trail of Champions in the dark dungeon labyrinth of Fang, riddled with monsters and deadly traps and other unknown horrors. Countless adventurers have accepted the challenge but have never been seen again.”

Train2Game then went on to ask: How has the course helped you develop the skills to deliver what is such an imaginative game design?

“Indigo Jam is very lucky to have a good range of skills and abilities gained from the Train2Game courses complemented by the extra training for the UDK Game Jam in November. The team is getting along really well. They are confident in their own abilities, and have delivered at every stage of development.”

 With the energy and hype that the teams are creating, Make Something Unreal Live at The Gadget Show Live can’t come soon enough.

As usual, leave your comments here on The Train2Game Blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

The inaugural BAFTA Games Question Time starts at 18:45 this evening and will be available to watch live at www.guru.bafta.org

As previously reported by The Train2Game Blog, various issues about the UK games industry will be up for a discussion by a panel which includes:

David Braben - founder and chairman of BAFTA-nominated Cambridge developer Frontier, and trustee of the Raspberry Pi Foundation.

Mark Gerhard – CEO of Jagex, the largest independent games developer and publisher in the UK, with titles including the browser-based MMOs RuneScape and Herotopia, plus the upcoming 8Realms, Stellar Dawn, and Transformers Universe.

Jason Kingsley - co-founder, CEO and Creative Director of Rebellion, developers of the BAFTA-nominated Alien Vs Predator and Rogue Trooper games. He’s Chairman of TIGA, representative association of the UK games industry and independent awarding and examination body for Train2Game courses. Kingsley spoke to The Train2Game Blog at last year’s Eurogamer Expo.

If you’ve got a question you’d like to ask the panel, let them know in advance by emailing events@bafta.org or using the hashtag #baftagamesQT on Twitter

Will you be watching BAFTA Games Question Time? What would you like to ask the panel?

Leave your comments here on The Train2Game Blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

BAFTA’s public events and online resources bring you closer to the creative talent behind your favourite games, films, and TV shows. Find out more at www.bafta.org/newsletter,www.facebook.com/bafta or twitter.com/baftagames