Why Remedy Entertainment went all in on Saga Anderson in Alan Wake 2

14.11.2023 - 11:53 / gamedeveloper.com / Saga Anderson / Kyle Rowley / Sam Lake / Alan Wake / Matthew Porretta / Alex Casey / James Maccaffrey / Melanie Liburd

Remedy Entertainment's revival of Alan Wake sees the developer bring back its winding, complex game about horror storytelling in a bold new way. Along with the return of the troubled, reality-bending writer, a new protagonist named Saga Anderson enters the horrifying and supernatural fray. But Saga's unique place in the main story pushed the developers to come up with a compelling way to structure the game's parallel stories and how best to portray the newest character.

We spoke with Alan Wake 2 creative director Sam Lake and game director Kyle Rowley about building the character of Saga Anderson, who is also the first Black protagonist in a Remedy Entertainment game. In our interview, we talked about how the character fulfills a specific need that was vital for the sequel, the creative process for building the character, and how Saga Anderson took the longest of any Remedy character to nail down.

As Remedy Entertainment's first true survival horror game, the sequel leans deeper into the experience of carefully maneuvering and surviving a hostile world where reality is being invaded by malevolent forces. But while the haunted and deeply troubled protagonist's return is a key focus, it's not the only story Alan Wake 2 has to tell. According to the creative leads of the game, the character of Saga Anderson was initially born out of a need to offer a new perspective following the 13 years since Alan Wake's debut.

As an FBI agent and investigator, Saga Anderson (portrayed by Melanie Liburd) takes a more pragmatic and analytical approach to understanding and combating the dark forces at work, which presents her as an effective foil to Alan's metaphysical and full-on supernatural storyline. Along with her partner Alex Casey (portrayed by Sam Lake and voiced by James McCaffrey), she eventually gets caught up in the larger story, with her own narrative and history being rewritten by The Darkness, and must use her brilliant deduction and her "Mind Palace" to uncover the mystery. The framing of Saga Anderson as an outsider exploring the Pacific Northwest and being pushed into the story was intentional, but for the developers, the focus still remained on Saga having agency and that her story would not be secondary to Alan's plot.

"It is important to say that, even though this is Alan Wake 2, this is just as much a Saga Anderson game," said creative director Sam Lake. "Our starting point in this whole thing was that we will have two protagonist characters who are equals and with different points of view. It is a 50-50 split. A lot of this story deals with Alan Wake (voiced by Matthew Porretta and portrayed by Ilkka Villi) and the supernatural lore established in the area, but it is just as much a Saga Anderson story.