Rain Cove Point Lighthouse

Rain Cove Point Lighthouse
Vital statistics
Episodes:	Episode One: Nightmare Special Two: The Writer
Type:	Lighthouse
Location:	Rain Cove Point, Washington, Alan's mind

 I had to get to the lighthouse, I knew there was something important waiting for me there. 

― Alan Wake, Episode One: Nightmare

Rain Cove Point Lighthouse is a location in Alan Wake, appearing in Episode One: Nightmare. As its name implies, it is located in Rain Cove Point, Washington. The lighthouse also appears on Alan Wake and Clay Steward's shared nightmare, where it plays a crucial role.

Layout

The building is composed of two main brick-built structures: a small, single-room cottage and the lighthouse itself, with a small corridor connecting them both. The cottage has a grayish red roof, with stepped cross-like gables on both ends, and an entrance porch with a small set of stairs. The porch also has a roof of the same color and a lamp. It has four large, green-colored arched windows; two at the front, on either side of the entrance, and two at the back. Inside, there is a large water heather at right, with a pair of pipes connected to it. Said room also stores utility items such as ladders, a broom or a hand truck, among others. The corridor has two more arched windows on both of it walls, and there is also an small table, a chair, and a black radio transmitter. The lighthouse tower has a set of spiral stairs with four landings between the base and the top of the tower. At the end of said stairs, there is a ladder leading to the lantern room. The roof of the tower is also red. The lighthouse is enclosed by a white fence, which extends from the cottage entrance to the right side of the cliff. Outside, there is a second a cottage with a design similar to the one attached to the lighthouse, which is enclosed by a wooden fence.

History

Nightmares

 Following a typical nightmare pattern, I was late, desperately trying to reach my destination -- a lighthouse -- for some urgent reason I couldn't remember. I'd been driving too fast down a coastal road to get there. 

― Alan Wake

During a series of recurring nightmares, Madison resident Clay Steward found himself in Rain Cove Point, fleeing from the Dark Presence towards the lighthouse, where, based on his "dream logic", he felt he would be protected. Writer Alan Wake was holding the door open for him and urged him to enter. However, Steward was killed before reaching the lighthouse. This nightmare would continue to repeat over the course of several nights. Some time later, on September of 2010, during his journey to Bright Falls, Wake also experienced one of these nightmares. This time, he was driving towards the lighthouse, where something important was supposedly waiting for him. As he stated, the entire world was being taken over by a dark force and the lighthouse was the last safe place on Earth. On his way to there, Wake is repeatedly attacked by a possessed hitchhiker. Upon reaching the road leading to the lighthouse, the hitchhiker turns into a dark tornado and chases the writer. Although he managed to enter the lighthouse, the light went out and he was attacked by Dark Presence, causing him to wake up from his nightmare. Around two weeks later, while researching lighthouses at his local library, Steward found the one he had been seeing in his dreams, which in turn led him to travel to Bright Falls in search of answers to his nightmares.

The Dark Place

After Wake is trapped on Dark Place and loses his sanity, the rational part of himself, guided by "Thomas Zane", made his way through the surreal environment, trying to reach his irrational self on the Bird Leg Cabin. The writer was told by Zane that in order to find his way to the cabin, he had to first reach lighthouse. During his journey, the irrational Alan shut the lighthouse down, but his counterpart eventually manages to ignite it once again. In response, the former sent hordes of Taken after him. Using the light of the lighthouse and the environment in his favor, Wake eliminated them and was finally able to reach his destination. Once inside, he climbed to the top and was transported to the cabin.

Collectibles

Episode One: Nightmare

Coffee Thermoses

#	Image	Section	Location
3		A Writer's Dream	On the log bench.

Special Two: The Writer

Night Springs Video games

#	Image	Location
9		On a sofa behind the lighthouse.

Behind the Scenes

• Based on early screenshots and trailers, the lighthouse had a different design which was simpler, and lacked the additional building attacked to the lighthouse tower itself.
• The lighthouse's appearance was based in the real-life North Head Lighthouse located in Ilwaco, WA.
• The Lighthouse was originally going to play an important role to the plot and be used as a gameplay mechanic. However, the idea was ultimately scrapped and the building was limited to the destination of the tutorial dream sequence. However, it eventually returned in the game's second DLC episode, The Writer, where it serves as both a destination and a gameplay mechanic as originally planned.
• Due to the changes in the lighthouse's role in the story, the location's layout and the very nature of the game during development, the lighthouse ended up being implemented in several vastly different scenerios and missions throughout development:
  • The lighthouse was first shown in one of the first teasers of the game, where it served as a safe place that Alan was trying to go to before sunset. Its location was in the south-western side of the map, relatively close to the Elderwood National Park as opposed it its final location in Episode 1. This location uses the original model made for the lighthouse.
  • The lighthouse was later used in a sequence of events that had Alan chasing after Rusty, who was being attacked by the Dark Presence. He would have eventually drove to the lighthouse after Rusty died at Stucky's Gas Station only to be attacked by a tornado. The sequence was shown during E3 2009. The lighthouse was still placed in its location from the first teaser, but its model was changed to the one from the final game. While some of the events in the sequence were retained in Episodes 1 and 2, the lighthouse sequence was scrapped.
  • The lighthouse was also used for an entierly scrapped episode in which Alan and Barry Wheeler would have flown to Rain Cove Point, which by then had an entirely different layout placed in the north-western corner of the map. Alan and Barry went to the place to investigate a mysterious replica of Bird Leg Cabin built there, and eventually had to make their way to the lighthouse to find a safe place to stay. Aside from the long road to the place along the shores of Rain Cove Point, the episode would have featured a lengthy sequence of the characters repairing the lighthouse and using its light to fight off hordes of taken.

Gallery

Rain Cove Point

A picture of the North Head Lighthouse, which was used for reference by Remedy Entertainment

Concept art for Rain Cove Point Lighthouse

From concept to in-game models

From the Preface of "The Alan Wake Files".