Celebrating 5 Years In Control - An interview with Control's Executive Producer Juha Vainio

Your name is Jesse Faden and you just arrived to New York City in search of answers.

After years spent trying to track down the Federal Bureau of Control, a mysterious government agency tasked with containing and studying events that transcend the laws of reality, you finally manage to reach their HQ, only to find out that nothing is quite as it seems and that you have become the Bureau's new Director.

Featuring a strong and multifaceted protagonist, a compelling narrative and incredible game design, Remedy Entertainment's Control has touched the heart of millions of players throughout the years.

Today marks 5 years since the launch of Control and the Remedy community is celebrating this milestone on social media, with players sharing their favorite photos and memories of the game.

I sat down with Juha Vainio, Executive Producer and Head of the Control Franchise, to talk about the development of Control and his involvement with the community.

Starting at the very beginning - how did the concept of Control first come to be?

I wasn’t in the Control team myself from the very beginning, I joined Remedy in 2017 when Control was already in production. The idea of Control started taking form in 2016, I believe Mikael Kasurinen and Sam Lake got the idea during Quantum Break, they thought it would be interesting to have some sort of Federal Bureau of Control overseeing things and then everything happened from there.

Jesse Faden, Control’s protagonist, is played by Courtney Hope, who has previously appeared in another Remedy title, Quantum Break, where she played Beth Wilder. When did you decide that Courtney was the perfect actress to take on the role of Jesse?

One of the ideas for Control was to have actors that appeared in earlier Remedy games: we had Courtney, who was Beth in Quantum Break, we had Dylan Faden played by Sean Durrie, who was also in Quantum Break, Director Trench played by James McCaffrey, who was in Max Payne and Dr. Darling played by Matthew Porretta, who was in Alan Wake. The idea was to pick the cast from different games. They were all audited and Courtney was extremely good, so she was picked for the role of Jesse and she turned out to be perfect for it.

What might be surprising for players who aren’t already familiar with previous Remedy titles and are playing Control for the first time is that the game blends FMV live-action videos into its cinematics and gameplay. Was that always the plan?

It was, yes. As you mentioned, we are playing with live-action videos in all our games and it was very natural for us to insert live-action footage in Control as well. For instance, the Dr. Darling videos are played out in live-action rather than through in-game graphics and we did it in a way that was fitting for the game’s environment: they’re playing on TVs that the player comes across while roaming the Oldest House. Some scenes with Courtney being possessed by the Hiss were also done in live-action, as well as the fan-favourite Threshold Kids episodes. I’d say it’s in Remedy’s DNA - we like to play with these kinds of things.

What was something that you decided to add close to the completion of the final version of the game that turned out to be a perfect last-minute inclusion?

Game production is something that evolves quite a bit, we definitely changed a lot of things over time. The original idea in Control was to use only the signage within the Oldest House for navigation, there weren’t any maps at first, but during player testing it turned out to be pretty confusing, so we added the map in a very late stage of production. It does take something from the way Control was intended to be played originally - you’re sort of lost in the Oldest House and you don’t really know where you are, you just see the signs and navigate via that. In the end it does give a better player experience to have a map and for players to know where they are going, so that was a necessary change we made after player testing.

That are so many segments of Control that stand out, thanks to its fantastic narrative, game design, lighting and music. Many players have their favorite locations, but I wonder – what’s your personal favorite?

I might have a different perspective on this because the first time I saw that location was during development and not during an actual sequence in the game. The first time I saw the Black Rock Quarry, that was a mind-blowing experience for me, that always has a soft spot in my heart.

Are there any particularly fond memories that come to mind from interacting with the community?

The Control community is absolutely the best and I have tons of fond memories, it's difficult to pick just one. I love how discussions on social media sometimes snowball and go into weird directions. A very recent example is how a bunch of Control fans came up with an International Control Sticky Note Day. It started with a virtual photograph of the Sticky Note room in Control and after some crazy online brainstorming, now we have International Control Sticky Note Day, #ControlStickyNoteDay, September 3rd, which is not that far away, so it will be very interesting to see how the very first one turns out.

Another particularly fond memory is from the day we showed the very first teaser trailer of Control, during Sony’s E3 2018 showcase. I wasn’t on the premises myself but I watched everything through the live stream. At first, when they were showing the audience’s reaction, it was super mixed, people didn’t know what to make of the game. Once the trailer ended with Control ’s logo there was some clapping, then Remedy Entertainment’s logo appeared and there was a huge hurray from the audience - that was very heartwarming, it was the very first impression of Control from the audience.

After launch, Control went on to garner quite the dedicated fan base – even now that 5 years have passed from the game’s release, the Control community is still very active on social media and looking forward to the upcoming projects! How would you describe Control’s future in just a few words?

It will be very interesting - bigger, better and more awesome!

To conclude, is there anything else that you would like to share with us?

One thing on the development side that might be a fun anecdote - when Control launched, a few days before the first reviews came out, we didn’t know whether players would like it or not and we were very anxious about what the reaction would be. We had a bet with the Game Director, Mikael Kasurinen, about what Metacritic score Control would get - Mikael was saying it would be 75 while I said that it would be 84, so we bet a bottle of whiskey over it and I won. I think we’re going to make a similar bet for Control 2 when the game will be launched.

That’s a very interesting anecdote indeed! Congratulations on the great score and on Control’s 5-year anniversary – we’re all looking forward to seeing what the future has in store for the franchise!