History Creator / RemedyEntertainment

*** ''VideoGame/MaxPayne1'': Lake famously lent his likeness to the titular character in the first game, due to a lack of funds to hire actual actors for the cast. Although Max's model was recast in later entries in the series so that Lake could focus on writing, many fans to this day consider him ''the'' definitive face of Max Payne.

*** Lake performs the most acting he's ever done yet as FBI Agent Alex Casey, whom he performed motion capture for and lent his likeness to, and also as "Alexei Kesä" in the 20-minute Finnish-language "Yötön Yö" short film, where he acts in live-action and uses his own voice.

* DescendedCreator: Remedy has a very long history of utilizing its own staff as actors, particularly Creative Director Sam Lake.
** ''VideoGame/MaxPayne'': Lake famously lent his likeness to the character of Max Payne, due to a lack of funds to hire actual actors for the cast. Although Max's model was recast in later entries in the series so that Lake could focus on writing, many fans to this day consider him ''the'' definitive face of Max Payne.
*** ''Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne'': Lake appears as an actor in several ShowsWithinAShow that Max can watch, including John Mirra in ''Address Unknown'' and the villainous [[CrossCastRole mother]] of the male protagonist in ''Lords and Ladies''.
*** ''Max Payne 3'': In a MythologyGag, an artistic rendering of Max Payne, likeness now based on his longtime voice actor Creator/JamesMcCaffrey, still has Lake's face.

* LocalReference: The studio loves sneaking in references to their home country of Finland, with the reoccurring town of Watery being made up of Finnish immigrants, to oddball Finnish janitor Ahti, who either shares his name with the Finnish pagan god of water or ''is'' the Finnish water god, making a cameo no matter how implausible. ''Alan Wake II'' contains the most references yet as the player is finally able to visit Watery, which features a sauna, lots of Finnish-language signage, the Kalevala Knights motorcycle club, the Koskela brothers with their KitschyLocalCommercial about "the Finnish way" to drink Ahma Beer, and a little Finnish flair in the Coffee World amusement park (also run by the Koskelas), which sells toy puukkos (a traditional Finnish knife). Many save points in ''[=AW2=]'' also have a plate of Karelian pies, open-faced savory pies with a rye crust, alongside the coffee thermos used to save the game.

*** Lake performs the most acting in any Remedy project yet as FBI Agent Alex Casey, whom he performed motion capture for and lent his likeness to, and also as "Alexei Kesä" in the 20-minute "Yötön Yö" short film, where he acts in live-action and uses his own voice.

** ''VideoGame/QuantumBreak'': Lake portrays FBI Agent Alex Casey in a trailer for an Alan Wake-written movie. He also appears as a member of the emo band My Bleeding Clock, as seen by a poster Jack owned in his youth.

* CreatorCameo: Sam Lake, Creative Director and writer at Remedy, shows up in roles of varying importance in several of their projects:
** ''VideoGame/MaxPayne'': Most famously, he appears [[DescendedCreator as the face for Max himself]] in the first game, though he was replaced for the second and third games.
*** ''Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne'': He is an actor in several of the TV broadcasts Max can watch, including John Mirra in ''Address Unknown'' and the villainous [[CrossDressingVoices mother]] of the male protagonist in''Lords and Ladies''.
*** ''Max Payne 3'': In a MythologyGag, an artistic rendering of Max Payne (now played by Creator/JamesMcCaffrey) still has Lake's face.
** ''VideoGame/AlanWake'': He appears AsHimself on an optional broadcast of ''The Harry Garrett Show'', giving his famous Max Payne scowl.
*** ''VideoGame/AlanWakeII'': His likeness is used as the model for Alex Casey, a character heavily inspired by Max Payne, in both Saga and Alan's campaigns. He also appears as [[TheDanza an actor named Sam Lake]] playing Alex Casey in movies.
** ''VideoGame/QuantumBreak'': He can be seen playing an important character in a trailer for an Alan Wake-written movie. He also plays a member of the band My Bleeding Clock, as seen by a poster Jack owned in his youth.

* [[DoppelGanger Doppelgänger]]:
** Alan Wake has [[EvilDoppelganger Mr Scratch]], and [[spoiler:it is implied he himself is one for Thomas Zane]]

** Ironically, [[Videogame/QuantumBreak Jack Joyce]] does not have one, despite being the only protagonist portrayed by an [[Creator/ShawnAshmore actor]] who has an [[Creator/AaronAshmore identical twin]]. [[spoiler:Averted in ''VideoGame/AlanWakeII'', which introduces [[PunnyName Tim Breaker]], played by Ashmore. Though he never meets Joyce, it's clear both in-universe ([[WordOfGod and]] [[WordOfSaintPaul out]]) that he's meant to be [[AlternateSelf Joyce's counterpart]].]]

** Music/PoetsOfTheFall, who regularly make music for Remedy games, have played both FakeBand Old Gods of Asgard, and/or as [[AsHimself themselves]] in ''VideoGame/MaxPayne2'', the ''Alan Wake'' games, and ''VideoGame/{{Control}}''. Vocalist Marko Saaresto, a childhood friend of Sam Lake's, also modeled for Vladimir Lem in ''VideoGame/MaxPayne1'' and for the Shrink in "Address Unknown" in ''VideoGame/MaxPayne2''

* LearntEnglishFromWatchingTelevision: In an interview, Creator/MatthewPorretta said that he was so impressed with the quality of the script he was reading for [[VideoGame/AlanWake this game]] made by a bunch of Finns for whom English is not their first language, and asked the writers at Remedy how they got the dialogue to sound so natural and not stilted. They replied simply that they learned from American film and TV, which is shown in Finland with subtitles at most, and is almost never dubbed into their language outside of children's media.
* LocalReference: The studio loves sneaking in references to their home country of Finland, with the reoccurring town of Watery being made up of Finnish immigrants, to oddball Finnish Janitor Ahti, who either shares his name with the Finnish pagan god of water or ''is'' the Finnish water god, making a cameo no matter how implausible. ''Alan Wake II'' contains the most references yet as the player is finally able to visit Watery, which features a sauna, lots of Finnish-language signage, the Kalevala Knights motorcycle club, the Koskela brothers with their KitschyLocalCommercial about "the many Finnish ways to drink Ahma beer", and a little Finnish flair in the Coffee World amusement park (also run by the Koskelas), which sells toy puukkos (a traditional Finnish knife). Most save points in ''[=AW2=]'' also have a plate of Karelian pies, open-faced savory pies with a rye crust.

** Before his passing, Creator/JamesMcCaffrey was the voice of ''VideoGame/MaxPayne'' as well as his SelfParody Alex Casey and poet Thomas Zane in ''VideoGame/AlanWake''. He also voiced Zachariah Trench in ''VideoGame/{{Control}}''.

** Creator/IlkkaVilli is the MotionCapture and likeness for Alan Wake in all of his appearances as well as Alan's doppelganger Mr. Scratch in ''VideoGame/AlanWakesAmericanNightmare'', and he also portrays Thomas Zane in full in ''VideoGame/{{Control}}'' and ''VideoGame/AlanWakeII''.
** Music/PoetsOfTheFall, who regularly make music for Remedy games, have played both FakeBand Old Gods of Asgard, and/or as [[AsHimself themselves]] in ''VideoGame/MaxPayne2'', the ''Alan Wake'' games, and ''VideoGame/{{Control}}''. Vocalist Marko Saaresto also modeled for Vladimir Lem in VideoGame/MaxPayne1.
** Creator/CourtneyHope plays a supporting role as time-traveler Beth Wilder in ''VideoGame/QuantumBreak'' and lead role as Director Jesse Faden in ''VideoGame/{{Control}}''.
** Sean Durrie plays ConspiracyTheorist cab driver Nick Marsters in ''VideoGame/QuantumBreak'', and Jesse's estranged brother Dylan Faden in ''VideoGame/{{Control}}''.
** Creator/ShawnAshmore plays protagonist Jack Joyce in ''VideoGame/QuantumBreak'', and Sheriff of Bright Falls Tim Breaker in ''VideoGame/AlanWakeII''.
** Creator/LanceReddick played Martin Hatch in ''Quantum Break'', and was initially planned to play his {{Expy}} Mr. Door in ''Alan Wake II'' before he passed away.

Remedy Entertainment is a VideoGame developing company based in Espoo, UsefulNotes/{{Finland}}. Remedy was founded in 1995 by demoscene members from groups such as Future Crew. The year after Remedy released its first game ''Death Rally'', a top-down perspective racing shooter published by Apogee and distributed by GT Interactive Software. In 2001, Remedy released its second game ''Max Payne''. The game is best known for its film noir influences and popularizing bullet time in video games. Remedy sold all the rights to ''Max Payne'' in 2002 to Take-Two Interactive for US$10 million and 969 932 shares of stock. The following year, a sequel to the franchise developed by Remedy and Rockstar Games was released. This would be Remedy's last ''Max Payne'' game, as Rockstar continued developing the franchise on its own.

* LearntEnglishFromWatchingTelevision: In an interview, Creator/MatthewPorretta, impressed with the quality of the script he was reading for [[VideoGame/AlanWake this game]] made by a bunch of Finns for whom English is not their first language, asked the writers at Remedy how they got it to sound so natural and not stilted. They replied simply that they learned from American film and TV, which is shown in Finland with subtitles at most, and is almost never dubbed into their language outside of children's media.

* LearntEnglishFromWatchingTelevision: In an interview, Creator/MatthewPorretta, impressed with the quality of the script he was reading for [[VideoGame/AlanWake this game]] made by a bunch of Finns for whom English is not their first language, asked the writers at Remedy how they got it to sound so natural. They replied simply that they learned from American film and TV, which is shown in Finland with subtitles at most, and is almost never dubbed into their language outside of children's media.

* LocalReference: The studio loves sneaking in references to their home country of Finland, with the reoccurring town of Watery being made up of Finnish immigrants, to oddball Finnish Janitor Ahti, who either shares his name with the Finnish pagan god of water or ''is'' the Finnish water god, making a cameo no matter how implausible. ''Alan Wake II'' contains the most references yet as the player is finally able to visit Watery, which features a sauna, lots of Finnish-language signage, the Kalevala Knights motorcycle club, the Koskela brothers with their KitschyLocalCommercial about "the many Finnish ways to drink Ahma beer", and a little Finnish flair in the Coffee World amusement park (also run by the Koskelas), which sells toy puukkos (a traditional Finnish knife). Most save points in AW2 also have a plate of Karelian pies, open-faced savory pies with a rye crust.

* LocalReference: The studio loves sneaking in references to their home country of Finland, with the reoccurring town of Watery being made up of Finnish immigrants, to oddball Finnish Janitor Ahti making a cameo no matter how implausible.

*** ''VideoGame/AlanWakeII'': His face is used as the model for Alex Casey, a character heavily inspired by Max Payne, in both Saga and Alan's campaigns. He also appears as [[TheDanza an actor named Sam Lake]] playing Alex Casey in movies.

* CreatorThumbprint: All of their original full-length games (beside ''Death Rally'') have been third-person shooters with {{Mind Screw}}y plots based around a semi-localized breakdown of reality where the protagonist wears a dark jacket (usually leather), and has some kind of powers which involves time. ''Control'' generally follows ''most'' of that, barring the time powers.
** Also, MediumBlending, [[LiveActionCutscene Live-Action Cutscenes]] and segments, with ''Alan Wake'' relegating them to in-game TV screens, ''American Nightmare'' and ''Control'' adding full live-action cutscenes, and ''Quantum Break'' having a ''full-length companion drama series''.

** Ironically, [[Videogame/QuantumBreak Jack Joyce]] does not have one, despite being the only protagonist portrayed by an [[Creator/ShawnAshmore actor]] who has an [[Creator/AaronAshmore identical twin]]. [[spoiler: Averted in ''VideoGame/AlanWakeII'', which introduces [[PunnyName Tim Breaker]], played by Ashmore. Though he never meets Joyce, it's clear both in-universe ([[WordOfGod and]] [[WordOfSaintPaul out]]) that he's meant to be [[AlternateSelf Joyce's counterpart]].]]

Remedy Entertainment is a VideoGame developing company based in Espoo, Finland. Remedy was founded in 1995 by demoscene members from groups such as Future Crew. The year after Remedy released its first game ''Death Rally'', a top-down perspective racing shooter published by Apogee and distributed by GT Interactive Software. In 2001, Remedy released its second game ''Max Payne''. The game is best known for its film noir influences and popularizing bullet time in video games. Remedy sold all the rights to ''Max Payne'' in 2002 to Take-Two Interactive for US$10 million and 969 932 shares of stock. The following year, a sequel to the franchise developed by Remedy and Rockstar Games was released. This would be Remedy's last ''Max Payne'' game, as Rockstar continued developing the franchise on its own.

** Creator/IlkkaVilli is the MotionCapture for Alan Wake in all of his appearances, as well as the Mocap for both Mr. Scratch in ''VideoGame/AlanWakesAmericanNightmare'' and Tom Zane in ''VideoGame/{{Control}}''.
** Music/PoetsOfTheFall, who regularly make music for Remedy games, have played both FakeBand Old Gods of Asgard, and/or as [[AsHimself themselves]] in ''VideoGame/MaxPayne2'', the ''Alan Wake'' games, and ''VideoGame/{{Control}}''.

* ''Max Payne 1 + 2 Remake'' (N/A) [[note]]In collaboration with [[Creator/TakeTwoInteractive Rockstar Games]][[/note]]
* ''Project Condor'' (N/A)
* ''Kestrel'' (N/A)
* ''Control 2'' (N/A)

%%* ''Max Payne 1 + 2 remake'' (upcoming)
%%* ''Project Condor'' (upcoming)
%%* ''Project Heron'' (upcoming)
%%* ''Control 2'' (upcoming)

Remedy would later work on ''Quantum Break'', which was announced during the Xbox One event on 21 May 2013. The game was released on April 5, 2016. During the development of ''Quantum Break'', the CEO of Remedy, Matias Myllyrinne, and Oskari Häkkinen, the head of franchise development, departed from the company. Remedy later announced the formation of a new team and that they're working on two projects. The first being a partnership with Smilegate on ''[=CrossFire 2=]''. The second being published by 505 Games, which revealed at [=E3=] 2018 to be ''Control''.

* IcyBlueEyes: So far, all of their protagonists (''Max Payne'' in his [[Creator/SamLake original appearance]], [[Creator/IlkkaVilli Alan Wake]], [[Creator/ShawnAshmore Jack Joyce]] and [[Creator/CourtneyHope Jesse Faden]]) share this trait.

** Creator/JamesMcCaffrey is the voice of ''VideoGame/MaxPayne'' as well as his SelfParody Alex Casey and poet Thomas Zane in ''VideoGame/AlanWake''. He also voices Zachariah Trench in ''VideoGame/{{Control}}''.

** Ironically, [[Videogame/QuantumBreak Jack Joyce]] does not have one, despite being the only protagonist portrayed by an [[Creator/ShawnAshmore actor]] who has an [[Creator/AaronAshmore identical twin]].

*** ''VideoGame/AlanWakeII'': His face is used as the model for Alex Casey, a character heavily inspired by Max Payne, in both Saga and Alan's campaigns.

** Also, [[LiveActionCutscene Live-Action Cutscenes]] and segments, with ''Alan Wake'' relegating them to in-game TV screens, ''American Nightmare'' and ''Control'' adding full live-action cutscenes, and ''Quantum Break'' having a ''full-length companion drama series''.

*** ''Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne'': He is the villainous [[CrossDressingVoices mother]] of the male protagonist of ShowWithinAShow ''Lords and Ladies''.

** ''Alan Wake II: Lake House'' (DLC)