In this week's A Dose of Remedy newsletter, the developers celebrated their long-serving World Editor (WED) as they marked the end of an era.
The software has been used in all of their games since the release of the original Alan Wake in 2010 through the writer's haunting sequel, but it was retired at the start of the month to be replaced by its successor, the New World Editor, NWED.
In their newsletter and later on Instagram, the studio shared their tribute to the code, writing, "At the start of April, a certain era here at Remedy came to a solemn end. The World Editor, better known internally as WED, was used by our development teams with every game we’ve done since the first Alan Wake. It was a source of myriad selection of feelings to our developers throughout the years. In the end, WED was a remarkably reliable tool, but after 20 years, it was time for it to retire to greener pastures."
The studio gathering, marked with themed cake and champagne, also paved the way for speeches. Northlight's Development Director, Tommi Lind, stated that "WED lived a long and singular life. The fact that it could still be used to not only ship a game, but a cutting-edge, world class title like Alan Wake 2, speaks volumes for the effort put into maintaining it over the years. While working with WED wasn’t always easy, together we accomplished great things. With that, let’s raise a glass to WED. Requiescat in pace!"
With work now completed on the editor, Remedy shared its growth over the years, stating that "The initial WED submit contained only 27 files, most of which were empty stubs for future implementation. After 20 years and many individuals contributing to it, the number of files removed from the Northlight codebase was 1905, totaling 256401 lines of C++ source code."
Source: A Dose of Remedy & Remedy Entertainment's Instagram
