Alan Wake 2 and Spider-Man 2 creators discuss the challenges of having two protagonists

Though they’re wildly different games on the surface, Alan Wake 2 and Spider-Man 2 are sequels representing massive achievements for their respective studios. In an IGN interview, Remedy’s Sam Lake and Insomniac’s John McAdam discuss some of the intricacies of game development, and how they dealt with having two protagonists.

Alan Wake 2‘s story is split between Alan Wake the writer, and Saga Anderson the FBI agent who has been dragged into a twisted tale. In Spider-Man 2, Peter Parker’s back but he shares the spotlight with Miles Morales.

According to McAdam, having the two protagonists forced the studio to shift from the original ideas driving the narrative. At first, Venom was going to be a central character that “was going to weave in and out of all the other characters in the story and affect them.”

However, with two protagonists to juggle as well, it felt like there was too much going on. Consequently, things had to change. This was mostly driven by writer Lauren Mee who decided that Miles should have his own arc with Martin Li. This change ensured that it doesn’t feel like Miles “was not participating in the story because it’s Peter who succumbs” to the symbiote.

Lake highlights how dual protagonists complicate the process of building suspense. Typically, you’d “lead the character into a cliffhanger and that’s the point to switch.” But players have freedom concerning when they switch, so that tool isn’t available anymore. Like McAdam, Lake relied on a lot of other writers to get the two character arcs right, including Clay Murphy.

Of course, the challenges that come with having two protagonists aren’t limited to narrative. There are also gameplay elements to consider. Though it was tough to include the feature to switch between characters in an open-world game like Spider-Man 2, it was worth it because it’s “so freeing for the player.”

Screenshot by Destructoid. What goes into creating Alan Wake 2 and Spider-Man 2 The two creatives also discuss how they go about planning these large narratives. Lake admits he takes an old-school approach and relies on a whiteboard. As his theoretical backbone, he uses “three helper structures: the three act structure, the hero’s journey, five or seven stages of grief.” McAdam has an approach that isn’t too different, as he also uses a whiteboard and describes himself as a “structure nerd.”

Both creatives also seem quite obsessive in just how detailed and planned their narratives need to be. Lake describes his stories as having multiple layers that begin with a synopsis. But he’s usually not satisfied at first, which motivates him to “write a proper treatment that can be anything from 30 pages to 50 pages on the detail level of what is actually going on and happening.” This is something McAdam relates to, and he also likes “to do a detailed treatment.”

We also get a glimpse into the editing process. Even at the heights Lake and McAdam work at, they still occasionally have a hard time with the editing process and letting go of ideas that they and the team love but might not work for the project.

As Lake explains, you need to be in a mental place where you “bear the fact that things are not locked. And for some people, it’s harder and a lot more stressful.” McAdams relates, though he admits the following: “one of the things I’ve learned to embrace as I’ve gotten older is it’s okay if we change things, because if we’re changing it, we’re changing it for a good reason.”

Both Spider-Man 2 and Alan Lake 2 have been well-received and have collected plenty of accolades. At The Game Awards, Remedy’s sequel nabbed three awards while Insomniac’s project dominated the player-voted PlayStation awards.

Smangaliso Simelane

Staff Writer – Smangaliso Simelane is a writer with a passion for all things related to video games. He has been writing about video games since 2020.