Ask most video-game designers about their inspirations and they'll mention other games. But Sam Lake, the lead writer of Microsoft's "Alan Wake," drew more from books — especially Stephen King's.

"The setup of the game — a best-selling but troubled writer whose dark work of fiction starts to come true, blurring the line of nightmares and reality — is a very Stephen King type of a starting point for a story, so King's works were definitely a source of inspiration for us," says Lake, whose script name-checks the horror master right at the start.