Dead by Daylight – Alan Wake Chapter, and why they’re a perfect match

19.01.2024 - 17:13 / thesixthaxis.com / Kyle Rowley / Alan Wake / Behaviour Interactive

Alan Wake is coming to Dead by Daylight at the end of this month, the tortured writer set to be the latest survivor in the long-running multiplayer horror game, but how did this come to be and what will Alan play like?

We got to join a virtual round table with Dave Richard – Senior Creative Director for Dead by Daylight, Michelle Reade – Associate Brand Manager for Dead by Daylight and Kyle Rowley – Game Director for Alan Wake 2, during which the folks from both studios got wax lyrical about both their respective games and the upcoming release of the Alan Wake chapter for Dead by Daylight which comes out on the 30th January,

The curious thing about Alan Wake and Dead by Daylight is how well matched their respective lore and mythos really is. Dead by Daylight’s realm of The Fog which is ruled by the mysterious entity, and Alan Wake’s Dark Place are eerily similar. Dead by Daylight is essentially a multiverse with the entity travelling to different points in time, and even to different realities to collect its victims to take part in its sick game. The Dark Place in Alan Wake is host to a multitude of unknowns and entities, and Dave even said during the session that it’s down to the fans to decide whether Alan wrote Dead by Daylight’s Entity into existence or the Entity just poked its way into Alan’s universe.

“The thing that’s super important for us when we created this universe was making sure that we were as ambiguous as impossible,” Dave said. “There’s no hidden truth and we wanted to leave a lot of the theory building to the fans.”

He continued, “There’s a concept in DBD where, because it’s a multiverse and the Entity can break holes into different realities, timelines and universes, that there’s certain people and especially artists who can be conduits and have images of other realms and universes. So, seeing that Alan has this kind of conjuration power out of his writing made it a kind of chicken and egg problem.

“It was very handy for us for the integration, because what’s happening here? Is it Alan Wake writing the reality of the Entity? Is it the Entity’s reality that poking a hole into the Dark Place and getting Alan Wake?”

Even that point is a good match for the ethos behind Alan Wake’s story. Mystery is at the centre of both games and it’s one of the main reasons that make them both so exciting. Kyle said, “All of our games revolve around mystery, and that’s something as studios, we like that idea that players can create their own theories around things and leave thing unexplained. That kind of synergy there between these two games is great.”

With all that in mind, this collaboration was a no brainer and later this month we will be getting Alan Wake as a new survivor in the game.

But why only have