SAM LAKE

`DEATH RALLY

Developer Remedy Entertainment Publisher 3D Realms Format PC Release 1996

MAX PAYNE

Developer Remedy Entertainment Publisher Gathering Of Developers, Rockstar Games Format PC, PS2, Xbox Release 2001

MAX PAYNE 2: THE FALL OF MAX PAYNE

Developer Remedy Entertainment Publisher Rockstar Games Format PC, PS2, Xbox Release 2003

ALAN WAKE

Developer Remedy Entertainment Publisher Microsoft Game Studios Format 360 Release 2010

QUANTUM BREAK

Developer Remedy Entertainment Publisher Microsoft Studios Format PC, Xbox One Release 2016

CONTROL

Developer Remedy Entertainment Publisher 505 Games Format PC, PS4, Xbox One Release 2019

ALAN WAKE 2

Developer Remedy Entertainment Publisher Epic Games Publishing Format PC, PS5, Xbox Series Release 2023

For Sami Järvi – in the days before he adopted his anglicised nom de plume – becoming a game designer was never really the plan. “I did love computer games,” Sam Lake tells us. “Commodore 64 was my first gaming machine, and I especially loved roleplaying games, with the worldbuilding and all.” But over time, he began to drift away.

“I was playing, for sure, but I was much more passionate in my teenage years and as a young adult when it came to tabletop roleplaying games. And I was reading a ton of fantasy books. And those two together really set off the spark to want to write, to tell stories.” That spark led Järvi to Helsinki University to study English Language & Literature, the first step along his intended path. “I was writing a lot, and thinking that I wanted to be a novelist. But then,” he laughs, “Remedy happened.”

One of the studio’s founding members, Petri Järvilehto, was a childhood friend and a regular player in his tabletop RPGs. The team had started out in the Finnish demoscene, taxing the hardware of the time to produce audiovisual spectacles – but as their attentions turned to videogame development, they realised they’d need someone to write the text.

Thirty years on, Lake is one of videogames’ most celebrated names. In January he picked up the Andrew Yoon Legend Award at the New York Game Awards, followed by the Lifetime Achievement Award at this year’s GDC. In July, he’ll be adding Develop’s Star Award to the trophy cabinet, with an accompanying keynote at the Brighton conference looking over his career to date.

By Lake’s own admission, it’s been a long and winding path. Remedy was doing the kind of development cycles we now expect from triple-A games long before they were fashionable. Max Payne took five years to emerge, a number that grew to seven on Alan Wake. And, of course, there was the 13-year stretch before the launch of that game’s sequel, a period littered with abortive attempts that shaped Lake, Remedy, and the version of Alan Wake 2 released in 2023.

Death Rally was revived with a PC version in 2009 (still available for free on Steam) and a mobile remake in 2011

Death Rally is the only game credited to Sami Järvi. “The manual misspelt quite a few Finnish names of the dev team, and that was frustrating,” he says of becoming Sam Lake. “That’s part of it – it was easier to use a translated version of my name”

For all that we end up talking about parallel universes and alternate timelines –common motifs in his games – Lake tell us he wouldn’t be tempted to skip any of those difficulties. “So much of who we are, as people and as creators, is built on those experiences. If there was a shortcut, it wouldn’t be you. It would be another version of you who doesn’t have these experiences to build on, and because of that, isn’t even interested in these topics. Because a lot of it comes from the process of you needing to figure things out, and finding things fascinate you.” If things had been different, he says, “we would have ended up in some other place. And I’m pretty happy where I am right now.”