Sami Järvi (born 18 July 1970 in Finland), better known by his artist name Sam Lake ('Järvi' is Finnish for lake), is a Finnish writer who is known for his work on the popular Max Payne video game series and for writing Alan Wake. Lake is good friends with Petri Järvilehto, a founding member of Remedy Entertainment, the company behind Max Payne. Järvilehto needed help with script writing in one of Remedy's early games, Death Rally, and invited Lake to write. Lake played several roles in the development of Max Payne. He wrote the game's story and script, helped design levels, and was the face model for the character of Max Payne. He posed as Max Payne in the game's graphic novels as well. 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. In the sequel, Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne, the expanded budget meant Lake could stick to writing. The game's script ended up being about fo...