Sami Järvi (born 18 July 1970), 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.