Remedy reveals Alan Wake production secrets

Finnish studio Remedy has offered a glimpse into the production of its Microsoft-exclusive game Alan Wake, revealing that just 30 people are working on the 360 and Vista title. In an article published by Finland's Helsingin Sanomat newspaper, the studio has explained that its core team is being supplemented by outsourcing and support from publisher Microsoft's US production team.

"Microsoft has huge machinery for games production. If a team of 80 voice actors are needed from the States, they can provide it. Their test laboratory is also fantastic," lead games developer Petri Järvilehto explained in the report.

"We are a very small team to work on something of this scale," added business director Matias Myllyrinne, who says that the exclusivity tying the game to Xbox and Windows platforms is helping speed up production, as well.

Despite that, Remedy won't commit to a release date: "In the computer games business, it often happens that a too optimistic launch date is advertised, and it then has to be postponed," said Järvilehto.

According to the report, Alan Wake is the first Finnish game to be published by Microsoft, and while the majority of the games' characters will be directly modeled on US actors, the titular character is based on Finnish actor Ilkka Villi.