An Alan Wake 2-Style Narrative Level Demo: Alex Casey in the Dark Place

I started this quest-level demo around mid-February. Adding up the bits and pieces of time I spent on it, it probably took about two or three weeks.

The demo is built on AGLS Template 1.5.

I trained Alex Casey’s voice using GPT-SoVITS, and made the advertising signs in the scene with Gemini Nano Banana.

Thanks to @花儿不哭 for the open-source GPT-SoVITS project. It’s been incredibly useful.

I’m a big fan of Remedy, so I wanted to make an Alan Wake 2-style level using AGLS Template. It would also give me another piece for my portfolio.

I’d originally hoped to polish it further, but work is about to get busy and will need my full attention. So I’m wrapping up the demo at this stage. I didn’t want to keep dragging it out. There may also have been a slight issue with the scope getting away from me.

While I was putting the environment together, an idea suddenly occurred to me: why not make a Night Springs-sized level where you play as Casey? That’s where this demo came from.

You are Alex Casey, and you’ve entered the Dark Place. You’re pursuing Alan Wake, leader of the Cult of the Word. A man named Thomas Zane has given you a subway pass over the phone, and now you’ve arrived here. A voice exactly like your own is guiding you. It tells you to find two unusual typewriters at two crime scenes, so you can open the way to the Writer’s House.

Something about all this feels familiar. Almost as if you’ve been in these stories before.