Last night (or in the very early hours of this morning depending on your timezone) Sam Lake was awarded the Game Developers Choice Lifetime Achievement Award on stage at the GDCA in San Francisco.
The award was presented by Alan Wake and Control actor, Matthew Porretta who spoke about Sam's creativity and determination in seeing his ideas through. He describes his friend, saying, “He creates with a giving spirit. He sees people's greatest potential, and he guides them to it with ease and enthusiasm. There really is something magical about Sam.” Before introducing the writer to the stage, he also brought up the topic of Finnish sisu, a cultural determination, and how Sam perfectly embodies it.
As Sam took to the stage, he thanked Matt and his peers in the audience, as he took out a folded piece of paper from his suit pocket. While looking prepared on the broadcast, the day hadn't gone as planned. A series of flight cancellations on his already fourteen-hour travel journey had led to some unexpected excitement, with the writer posting on social media “After what ended up being the longest journey ever (flight cancelled, etc.) 🫠🥴😴, I’m in San Francisco at @Official_GDC 🔥🔥🔥” just six hours before curtain call.
Stepping up to the microphone, he thanked his colleagues, collaborators, family and friends, and talked about his passion for mixing mediums, despite sometimes resistance. For developers, he encouraged them to embrace their kind of weird and to pack art into everything they do.
Though a personal favourite section of the speech came near the end, when he was spoke about his initial plans to write a poem. He revealed, “I didn't write a poem, but I think anything unexpected, and yes weird, some of the people in the audience would maybe have thought it would be a bit cringe. Maybe. That in itself would have been a great reason to write that poem. For even if a hundred persons would roll their eyes and say I'm a clown, if for that hundred, there would be a few who would feel seen and feel thrilled about it and come out inspired by it, and feel like they've been given a licence to go for their own strange ideas. Then would it not have been worth it? Would it not have been art? And a lifetime well spent.”
You can watch the acceptance speech timestamped in the video below...
Game Developer Choice Lifetime Achievement Award 2025, Sam Lake's Acceptance Speech Transcript
Matthew Porretta: I am so happy and honoured to be presenting Sam Lake for the Game Developer Choice Lifetime Achievement Award. This award recognises the achievements of an individual who has impacted games and game development, and I can't think of anyone who deserves this more.
It all kind of happened by chance; Sam's friends were making a video game, Death Rally, and they asked him to write some text for it and boom. It started a remarkable thirty-year run. You have Max Payne, Alan Wake, Quantum Break, Control, Alan Wake 2 and each year Sam's hair and his suits got a little bit cooler.
Sam created a universe where everything connects, and no matter how out there or crazy it may sound, it all works. I mean, he was talking about a musical in Alan Wake years before it happened, and I've got to be honest, I didn't quite see it, but Sam did. Everyone has ideas, and they mostly stay ideas. Sam had an idea and he made it happen, for himself, for the people who works with. He creates with a giving spirit. He sees people's greatest potential, and he guides them to it with ease and enthusiasm. There really is something magical about Sam.
In the Finnish language, there is a word, “sisu”, and it doesn't have a perfect English translation but roughly translates to grit, tenacity, and unwavering will to victory, and Sam has that. Or... maybe it's coffee. He drinks a lot of coffee. Even though this is a Lifetime Achievement Award, Sam has so much more to give and to do. I don't doubt that we will be back here in another thirty years. So, it is my honour to present this Lifetime Achievement Award to writer, director, producer, actor, and dancer extraordinaire, Sam Lake!
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| Sam Lake with his Lifetime Achievement Award |
Sam Lake: Thank you, Matt. Thank you, GDC. "Oh god, he has paper, he really is old." I feel very proud to be standing here in a room full of my respected peers who are all awesome. All of the games we've seen today are incredible. I'm very proud to be recognised this way. I need to thank many people who have helped me get here; my colleagues at Remedy, all my collaborators, my family, my friends. All the things that have inspired and all the things I love, and annoyingly I think I need to thank things that I don't enjoy as well because we are all so much influenced by the world around us. Everything and everyone. But I wouldn't change a thing.
I feel I have been on this mission of testing the limits that I can imagine, to put into a game to tell a story. Different art forms combined and crammed in, and also to tell stories that go beyond a game. Stories that create a universe. I feel that through the years, there has been sometimes resistance to this as if this would not be the thing should be focused on in games, but I've still stubbornly kept doing it, adding more to it. And step, by step, I feel the criticism has faded away, or maybe I've just gone deaf to it.
So, I was thinking, what I could say to you, my peers. Many of whom, know just as much about making games or many of whom know more about making games than I do. What kind of advice could I give? I'll try. I think it's important to find your thing, your unique voice, to stand out. Go where your passion takes you. Trust your vision. Be patient with this, but stay true to it. And keep pushing it forward. But also, always, be a team player. Always listen to the good ideas from the talented people around you, and try to find ways to incorporate those ideas in a way that complement your ideas. Hide in as much art as you can get away with. This is your vital secret mission. Shhh. Tell nobody.
And what is art? You know what it is when you work on it. It's what makes you exited, what gives you joy, and what makes you proud. Roll with punches. When you face an obstacle, and you have to change your ideas, your story, or the design; take it to mean that you've now been given the opportunity to come up with something even cooler and even better. Always this. I feel like easily, we are lazy with our initial ideas; obstacles force us to be creative, and something great can come out of that and often does.
I told a colleague of mine back home, that instead of a speech, I'll write a poem for this and my colleague, Molly [Maloney] said “you are so weird”, to which I said, “I think that's why they're giving me this award.” I didn't write a poem, but I think if I had, as with anything unexpected, and yes weird, some of the people in the audience would maybe have thought it would be a bit cringe. Maybe. That in itself would have been a great reason to write that poem.
For even if a hundred persons would roll their eyes and say I'm a clown. If for that hundred, there would be a few who would feel seen and feel thrilled about it and come out inspired by it, and feel like they've been given a licence to go for their own strange ideas. Then would it not have been worth it? Would it not have been art? And a lifetime well spent. To channel Ahti the Janitor, a character from several Remedy games now, with his thick accent and habit of translating Finnish idioms word by word. If you bow to somebody, you will end up showing your butt to somebody else. Which is to say, if you are afraid that someone will dislike what you do, you will end up not doing anything worthwhile.
It's been a crazy couple of years. Crazy couple of years personally as well. I'm incredibly proud of Alan Wake 2, what we managed to do. What we have built with our universe so far, and I fully realise that I'm very fortunate and very privileged, but also I have been exhausted and frustrated so many times along the way. And I think that's the thing, these contradictions and these different things will always be present at the same time. In this work, I have made so many wonderful friends along the way, whom I value more than I can possibly express here. I absolutely never expected to be awarded something like this. But then I never expected to dance in front of a huge audience grinning like a madman. I'll finish off with the most important thing. Make games. Make art. Not war. Thank you.
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| The Game Developers Choice Lifetime Achievement Award |
Source: GDCA 2025 Livestream (via IGN)
Image Source: Remedy Entertainment
