Having learned about a key skip in speedruns Alan Wake 2 expansion House by the Lake during Awesome Games Done Quick 2025 in early January, developer Remedy Entertainment promised not to fix the bug that made this strategy possible.
The omission is basically as Remedy describes. At several points during House by the LakePlayers must travel in an elevator between different floors of the title building. However, by manipulating the elevator and selecting a desired floor from outside the mode of transportation after closing the doors, speedrunners can teleport between floors rather than sitting and watching cutscenes of their journey.
During the AGDQ 2025 performance current world record holder Down House by the Lake suavepeanut said each skip, which can be “difficult” by having to press four buttons at once, saves 20 to 30 seconds. When used successfully up to seven times in a game, it can shave off a relatively enormous portion of time during a speedrun that takes less than 20 minutes to complete.
It’s infrequent for a major studio to leave their game in less than perfect condition just to please a diminutive group of die-hard fans. Hollow Knight speedrunners, e.g. play a much older version of the game as developer Team Cherry infamously patched many bugs that he used to complete the game as quickly as possible.
Remedy Entertainment did not immediately respond to Polygon’s request for comment.
