This week brings a very special Show and Tell — one that features the Kotaku community’s very own Sughly. For those that don’t know Sughly, he’s fond of documenting Kotaku community happenings through the art of awesome stick figures , but he’s also a game developer who has just completed his latest game Egress, before moving on to his next project Anna’s Room. Today, he’s here to talk about his work.
Can you introduce yourself and tell me a little bit about your studio?
My name’s Dane Krams (though I linger around these parts as ‘Sughly’) of Krams Design, a company that consists entirely of me, myself, and I. I started poking around with Adventure Game Studio a couple of years back which eventually inspired me to complete my Masters degree, start up the Krams Design moniker, and begin working on my Masters project Anna’s Room.
What game are you working on at the moment?
Anna’s Room! It’s a point and click adventure game for PC in hand drawn, 2D animation, and is a fantasy/comedy heavily inspired by the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Anderson tales. Anna’s a little girl who, on her way to finding a cure for her ailing Grandfather, has been kidnapped by a wicked old witch deep in the woods intent on performing strange and peculiar experiments (as witches do). What she doesn’t count on though are the powerful telekinetic forces brought up in Anna that opens up her first window of escape…
I’m a huge fan of the Lucasarts and Sierra quest games of old, so I’m really just trying to help carry on the adventure torch that a lot of like-minded indie developers have done so already!
Where and when can we play?
Well, while Anna’s Room might have its first few chapters done and ready to go, I’m still putting the finishing touches to a full length design document that extends on the story. Short answer is that it may be released in chapters, in which case part one could be released as soon as February next year, or otherwise as a full length title, depending on what the outcome is of some ongoing discussions with publishers and what not!
In the meantime though there’s the recently completed Egress – The Test of STS-417 which is free and available right now! In a nutshell it’s a short form sci-fi adventure that has you saving a fellow astronaut when maintenance on an interplanetary probe goes horribly wrong (as it does). Just head on over to the game’s page on the Krams Design website for more information and a download link.
What’s next for your studio — any big plans?
Obviously the big plan is to get the full Anna’s Room story out there, whether by means of chapter instalments or as a full length title as mentioned above. I’m extremely excited about the idea and story laid out in the design document, and even more so by the potential of the game reaching store shelves if all goes well with interested parties!
Any words of advice for those who want to get into the games industry?
It’s plain old blood sweat and tears. You really need to just work your butt off. Work every single day. If you have ideas then noone’s going to finish them for you, so stop making excuses and just start buiding the damn thing already! Most of your work will suck at first too, but it will only get better with even more work. Chalk it up to experience and keep at it. I’m a believer that sooner or later good work will get attention, especially in this age of digital distribution.
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