Alan Wake: Illuminated

The cover of the book

Alan Wake: Illuminated is a limited edition art/making of book. It was released on 14 May 2010. Whilst it's not a part of the Alan Wake Limited Collector's Edition, there is still only a limited number of copies in circulation.

You can also buy it as the Official Survival Bundle, which includes the Official Guide of the game and the Alan Wake: Illuminated Artbook.

Overview/Contents Of The Book

Overview

The Contents of Alan Wake: Illuminated is divided into fourteen chapters, which also include a foreword by Sam Lake and Acknowledgments. The book covers the developer of the game, Remedy Entertainment, artwork and concept art, multiple behind-the-scenes looks, and the making of the game. As well as covering unused materials and a covering of each and every episode.

Contents

Foreword By Sam Lake

The Foreword By Sam Lake is essentially just a short foreword written and delivered by Sam Lake. He describes about Alan Wake, Death Rally and the start of Remedy, as well as the contents of the book.

Chapter 04. Building the World of Alan Wake

Building the World of Alan Wake, covers the pre-production and production of the entire world of Alan Wake. It covers the entire production from beginning to end, from the some of the crew going to the Northwest of America to view the area including settings like lakes, forests, small towns and ghost towns; which these places are a part of the setting of Alan Wake. As well as taking photos from their trip and taking them into being concept art and drawings, then into still images and finally taking them into the pre-production and final production of the game and its visual setting. It also includes concept art, photos, maps and descriptions of certain, specific places including Bright Falls, Cauldron Lake, the Cauldron Lake Lodge, Bird Leg Cabin and the Elderwood National Park.

Chapter 05. The Cast of Alan Wake

The Cast Of Alan Wake covers the entire cast of Alan Wake, which covers the majority of the characters including Alan Wake, Alice Wake, Barry Wheeler, Rose Marigold, Rusty and several others. For each and every character, it covers the early beginnings of the character as well original construction and design. It also covers a short description of the character and the design and construction; as well as two pictures, one of the in-game character and one of the actor of the character.

Chapter 07. Building a Psychological Action Thriller

Building a Psychological Action Thriller is about the Remedy team developing Alan Wake in terms of a psychological action thriller. It covers the team developing themes and elements and story points for the game, as well as figuring out how to make the plot seem surreal, weird and terrifying yet also realistic. As well as creating the enemy, the Taken, to be a powerful and terrifying enemy that is unusual and weird, but not being too fantastical and weird that it gets to a point of being sci-fi; developing and refining it enough just so that it is weird and terrifying but also realistic enough.

Chapter 08. Episode 1: Nightmare

Official Survival Bundle

This chapter essentially covers the entirety of the first episode of Alan Wake, Episode 1: Nightmare. It shows a summary of the episode, as well as other details. It also covers certain elements of the episode, of their development and final production, which includes The Dream, the town of Bright Falls, the first two Manuscripts, Bird Leg Cabin and Stucky's Gas Station. In addition it covers the early beginnings and original production of the episode, and the final production and building of the episode, with the final product.

Chapter 09. Episode 2: Taken

Similar to the first Episode, Episode 2: Taken covers the continuation of the first Episode, with an introduction and a summary. The pre-production and production, as well as concept art, photos and descriptions of certain elements are weaved in through the entire summary throughout the entire chapter. It also includes visualizations and descriptions of certain elements and places in Episode 2, including the introduction of the Taken, Bright Falls, the Elderwood National Park and Lover's Peak.

Chapter 14. Unused Materials

Chapter 14: Unused Materials is about all of the unused materials that were deleted from the game before it was released by Remedy. It talks about some of the different materials that were taken out as well as how and why they were. In addition, it also talks about how the fact that some of the remnants of of them are still hidden throughout different parts of the video game, stating the possibility of, "can you find them?"

Acknowledgements

The Acknowledgements are essentially and end word, the opposite to a foreword, of Alan Wake: Illuminated. There is simply a picture of Remedy, all of the personnel of the company and a short caption saying how they greatly enjoyed making the game and how they hope fans will greatly enjoy the video game.

References

1. Alan Wake: Illuminated, Art Book/Making Of Book, archived 2023-10-08 at https://archive.org/.