The Great Influencer

Video games are, in the grand scope of media, young. They've been around just a tad longer than personal computers and serve as possibly our youngest form of entertainment. They are a great many things besides young, however. They can be fun and joyous, big and bold, exciting and terrifying, but what they truly are is potential. Video games have the potential to push the limits of human creativity to its absolute ends. To test artists, writers, and directors of all sorts to THEIR limits, that's the potential video games have. Video games do not and cannot survive on simple, rehashed concepts and ideas. Developers push the envelope more and more each year. Releasing games with concepts unheard of. Saying to us, "You didn't even think this could exist, but it does."

The ideas that live on the outer reaches of the human mind are expressed most freely and beautifully in video games... for the most part. There is one man whose influence on the gaming industry runs so deep yet was so seldom given the credit. He is possibly the one person who could create something outside of video games that pushes our brains to those same limits. He most likely influenced your favorite game like he did for both of mine. If you didn't know by now, this article is about David Lynch, The Great Influencer, who needs no introduction.

Before I really get into the thick of his influence on the industry and games we love, I just want to take a moment to express how deeply saddened I am by Mr. Lynch's passing. He is possibly my greatest creative influence, and his work has inspired me to create amazing worlds and even DND campaigns with my friends. Starring characters such as Agent. Scale Snooper. His influence on my own creative work and the works that I love was truly something of major proportions. That being said, I'm sure he'd want nothing more than to inspire the next generation of creatives, just as soon as he's had a slice of damn good cherry pie and a cup of coffee.

Not many movie directors have ventured into the realm of video games, on purpose or by influence. Guillermo Del Toro and Steven Spielberg remain two of the bigger names. Helping to develop multiple games and those games narratives. However, in terms of influence on the games industry as a whole, none can hold a candle to David Lynch and his work.

Some history is required here. David Lynch is the director of multiple cult classic films as well as some more popular, well-received films. Mulholland Drive and The Elephant Man stick out among the latter, with some of his stranger work, like Eraserhead, being in the former. What most people recognized David Lynch for was what I consider to be a masterpiece in storytelling, Twin Peaks. A lot of what we love about television now was foreshadowed in Twin Peaks and its production and reception. The setting is mysterious and engrossing, the characters are unique and strange but engaging and endearing, and the quality and direction, while being a product of its time, are no doubt fantastic and intentional.

Twin Peaks is my favorite TV show. I recently rewatched both the original seasons and the prophesized 25-year-later follow-up, Twin Peaks: The Return. When people talk about something being "Lynchian" in influence, they are almost always talking about Twin Peaks. It only takes a few episodes to see the massive influence in some of the greatest games ever made.

The similarities between Twin Peaks and Alan Wake 2 are vast. Sleepy town in the Pacific Northwest, crazy and unique characters, alternate dark universe centered on a large building next to some sort of body of water. Maybe that last one was a bit specific but true nonetheless. Twin Peaks is referenced specifically by Sam Lake, Creative Director at Remedy, as the largest inspiration for Alan Wake and especially Alan Wake 2. Sam Lake's role in Alan Wake holds other unique similarities to David Lynch's direction as well. Such as inserting themselves to play roles in their works. Mr. Lynch as Deputy Director Gordon Cole on Twin Peaks and Mr. Lake as himself in certain live-action segments of Alan Wake 2.

I don't want to dive to much deeper into Alan Wake, as I could talk for years about how special of a universe it is, but its better left to be experienced. I highly recommend playing through at least the first few acts; its incredible and well worth whatever amount of time you put into it. See if you can catch all the similarities and inspiration it took from Twin Peaks along the way

I suppose, given the inspiration Lynch left for Alan Wake 2, its no surprise that Silent Hill also finds itself lending a lot from the "Lynchian" playbook. Exact inspirations and similarities are hard to pin down for Silent Hill, as it was a foreign-made game from a bygone generation of consoles. However, by looking at some of the core concepts in both Silent Hill and Twin Peaks, the similarities draw themselves quite clearly.

Well, the tone in Silent Hill 2 shirks any humor and leans quite heavily towards the dark and psychological. its still a sleepy (in quite a literal sense) town in a quiet and wooded part of America, this time taking place in Maine. Filled with very eccentric and strange characters. In Silent Hills case, most of these characters end up quite macabre or even evil. I think the biggest similarity in the two series is in the namesake. If asked who the main character of Twin Peaks was, I think most people would confidently answer Dale Cooper; he gets the most screentime, and the story is basically pushed forward from his perspective. If asked the same about Silent Hill 2, most everyone will answer James Sunderland, the character we play throughout the entire game. In reality, the main character of both series is the towns themselves. The supposed protagonists serve only as a vector through which the story of the town can be told. And respectively, the towns have character and even attributes that change and grow and shrink as the story unfolds around us. The towns manipulate and influence our characters, and we simply play along to the tune of their story.

CONCLUDE

This may have felt a bit like a ramble towards the end, but I have always found it important to examine the people and elements that influence and inspire us. David Lynch was a special man and an even more special creator, and to have been able to witness his work was life-changing. I hope it will continue to inspire and influence more creators to believe in their ideas and stories and let those drive their creation. To bury ourselves in the process of creativity can be difficult and even scary, but if we let our intuition and love for storytelling take the wheel, surely we will come out the other side with even more amazing worlds to paint in each other's minds. I'll leave us with a quote from the man himself

“Everything I learned in my life, I learned because I decided to try something new.”

― David Lynch