Sam Lake | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Sami Järvi March 28, 1970 |
| Occupation(s) | Creative Director @ Remedy Entertainment |
| Years active | 1996 - Present |
| Known for | Max Payne, Alan Wake Quantum Break Control |
Sami Antero Järvi, better known internationally as Sam Lake ('Järvi' is Finnish for lake), is a Finnish video game writer. He is the creative director at Remedy Entertainment, known for his writing (as well as his likeness) on the popular Max Payne video game series (in which a photo of his face was used as Max Payne's face), and Alan Wake.
Järvi was heavily woven into the founding of Poets of the Fall. In early 2003, while working as a script-writer for Remedy, he handed his friend Marko Saaresto a poem he had written, asking him to turn it into a song to use in Remedy's upcoming video game Max Payne 2. The song, entitled Late Goodbye, was used as the ending-theme of the game as well as a recurring motif, being sung and whistled by multiple characters. Saaresto and fellow former FUSS bandmember Olli Tukiainen recorded the original performance. It was produced by Remedy sound engineer Markus Kaarlonen, who joined the band shortly after due to Saaresto and Tukiainen liking his work.
Since then, Poets of the Fall have been brought onboard for several other Remedy Entertainment projects - Alan Wake, Alan Wake's American Nightmare, Control and Alan Wake II.
Works
| Year | Release | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 1996 | Death Rally | Writing |
| 2001 | Max Payne | Story and screenplay, graphic novel model |
| 2003 | Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne | Writer |
| 2010 | Alan Wake | Concept design, story and screenplay |
| 2012 | Alan Wake's American Nightmare | Creative director and writer |
| 2016 | Quantum Break | Creative director and executive producer |
| 2019 | Control | Concept and writer |
| 2023 | Alan Wake II | Creative director, writer, Alex Casey's model |
Trivia
- Sam Lake had a cameo role in Hideo Kojima's Death Stranding as "The Veteran Porter". Kojima similarly had a cameo role in Lake's Control as Dr Yoshimi Tokui.
- In Max Payne, Sam and Marko play numerous live-action roles against one another on in-game televisions. At one point, Sam fights Marko to the death in a sword duel.