Remedy’s creative director Sam Lake has been announced as the first keynote speaker for this year’s Develop:Brighton conference.
The session, a fireside chat titled ‘Remedy’s Sam Lake: 30 years of storytelling’, will celebrate the studio’s milestone and explore how its storytelling has evolved over the past three decades.
“Quite a few games and a lot of learnings fit into 30 years of making games,” Lake tells GamesIndustry.biz. “When it comes to storytelling in action-filled games I feel we’ve been on a logical path forward, always building on the foundation and learnings of the previous games.”
“I feel very proud looking back,” he continues. “I feel we have achieved a lot. It’s been hard work, and even hard going at times. But it feels good to be where we are now. And a lot of ambition and excitement remains when looking forward to the future.”
Last year, Lake received the Star Award for best creative lead alongside Alan Wake 2 winning best visual art and best audio. Lake will be awarded the Develop Star Award at the 2025 Develop Star Awards taking place on Wednesday, July 9.
“It feels good to be where we are now. A lot of ambition and excitement remains when looking forward to the future”
“Receiving the prestigious Develop Star Award is a huge honour, so I’m very much looking forward to being at Develop: Brighton,” explains Lake.
“It’s my first time at the conference, and I’m excited to be there. To celebrate the occasion, the fireside chat made a lot of sense, especially as Remedy is 30 years old this year, tracing back the road of how we got here.”
As for receiving last year’s award for best creative lead, Lake described it as “a very welcoming surprise.”
“I feel it’s a great category for awards,” says Lake. “Making Alan Wake 2 was a very personal project for me, and I put a lot of myself in many ways into the project, more so I feel than ever before. To be acknowledged of that work felt good.”
Following the release of Alan Wake 2 and its two DLCs (which were my personal pick for 2024’s game of the year), Lake says that Remedy will continue to “keep exploring and experimenting” – particularly through the Remedy connected universe including its franchises Alan Wake and Control.
“Through a few games, we have built a solid foundation of the universe now, and even more, a very solid foundation of storytelling when it comes to technique and tone,” he notes. “We will keep exploring and experimenting going forward and will broaden the scope of the games.”
Its upcoming project, FBC: Firebreak – due for release this summer – is one step further in that direction as Remedy’s first multiplayer and first-person shooter.
“Firebreak is a co-op game with a Control setting and lore, but it’s a different kind of game and thus much less focused on storytelling, and yet very much part of the universe,” says Lake.
Remedy is currently developing the sequel to Control, in addition to remakes of Max Payne 1 and 2 in collaboration with Rockstar who own the IP.
“There will be games that will feel familiar and very connected to the storytelling of the previous games, but there will also be games set in the universe that will surprise you in many ways.
Tandem Events managing director Andy Lane commented: “Following an absolutely stellar year for both Sam Lake and Remedy Entertainment, attendees of this year’s conference have a wealth of experience and knowledge to look forward to from Sam’s fireside chat.
“Passionate storytelling will always be an asset to games development, and we look forward to welcoming Sam to Brighton this year – as well as recognising his achievements with the Star Awards.”
Other speakers include experts from Sony, Ustwo Games, Criterion, Frontier Developments, The Chinese Room, Wargaming, Google, and D3t.
There are ten session tracks covering a variety of disciplines, including two new categories: games education and performance.
Develop:Brighton 2025 will take place from Tuesday, July 8 to Thursday, July 10 at the Hilton Brighton Metropole.
GamesIndustry.biz is a media partner for Develop:Brighton 2025.
