Sam Lake

• Name — Sam Lake • Birth Name — Sami Antero Järvi • Born — 28 March 1970 • Birthplace — Helsinki, Finland • Occupation — * Writer • director • auteur • Known for — * Max Payne • Max Payne 2 • Alan Wake • Quantum Break • Control • Alan Wake 2 • Education — University of Helsinki • Employer — Remedy Entertainment (Creative director)

• Illustration — Lake at E3 at the Los Angeles Convention Center in 2005 Lake attended University of Helsinki studying English literature around 1995. He was introduced to video games through a long-time friend Petri Järvilehto, one of the early members of Remedy Entertainment. Remedy was developing their first game Death Rally and needed text for the game, and Järvilehto asked Lake, one of the few people Remedy knew in writing, to help. Lake accepted the offer, and has since remained with the company.

Lake played several roles in the development of Max Payne (2001). He wrote the game's story and script and helped design levels. Because of the game's budget, Remedy could not hire actors. As a result, Lake, along with other Remedy programmers, artists and staff played the roles. Lake became the face model for the title character and he even got his mother to portray Nicole Horne, the game's main antagonist, whereas his father played Alfred Woden. In the sequel, Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne (2003), the expanded budget meant Lake could stick to writing. The game's script ended up being about four times as long as some movie scripts. For the sequel, the budget increase allowed the team to hire professional actors to model for the graphic novel cutscenes and Lake was subsequently replaced by actor Timothy Gibbs. However, if the player should watch any of the TV set shows during the game, they will see that Lake models for various characters in Max Payne's meta, in TV shows and billboards, such as John Mirra in the television show Address Unknown as well as "Lord Valentine" and "Mama" in Lords and Ladies, and, finally, "Dick Justice" in Dick Justice. The ending theme song, "Late Goodbye" which appears in various points of the game, often sung by in game characters, is based on a poem by Lake. The song was written by the Finnish rock band Poets of the Fall. Mob boss Vinnie Gognitti remarks that the creator of Max Payne's in-game cartoon series, Captain Baseball Bat Boy, is a man named Sammy Waters, which is a play on the name Sam Lake. In the Max Payne film which was released in 2008, Sam Lake also provided some writing help, though mostly for the character background.

Lake was the lead writer for the 2010 "psychological action thriller" Alan Wake, which went on to receive numerous awards and a positive critical reception for its characters and story. He appears as fictional movie star Sam Lake in an in-universe TV show alongside Alan Wake. The first game also features references to Lake's earlier work with Max Payne when the player is allowed to read a few pages from the protagonist's novel The Sudden Stop. When opened, the pages are voiced by James McCaffrey, the voice of Max Payne, and makes clear references to the previous games, such as the troubled character's murdered wife and baby, and his abuse of painkillers. Lake reprises his role as the fictional version of himself in the 2023 sequel Alan Wake II, where Lake is cast in-universe as Alex Casey, the detective subject of Alan Wake's novels. Lake also appears as himself in the game's first downloadable content expansion, "Night Springs".

• Year — Title — Role(s) • 1996 — Death Rally — Writer • 2001 — Max Payne — Story, screenplay • 2003 — Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne — Writer • 2010 — Alan Wake — Director, writer • 2012 — Alan Wake's American Nightmare — Creative director, writer • 2016 — Quantum Break — Creative director, executive producer • 2019 — Control — Concept, writer • 2023 — Alan Wake 2 — Director, creative director, lead writer

• Year — Title — Role — Notes • 2001 — Max Payne — Max Payne — Likeness • 2019 — Death Stranding — Veteran Porter — Likeness • 2023 — Alan Wake 2 — Alex Casey — Likeness, motion capture • 2025 — Dead Take — Frank Gardeu