Jonas Kyratzes | |
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 Kyratzes in 2011 | |
| Born | 21 May 1984 |
| Nationality | Greek, German |
| Occupation(s) | Video game designer, writer |
| Known for | Last Rose in a Desert Garden (2000), The Museum of Broken Memories (2006), The Strange and Somewhat Sinister Tale of the House at Desert Bridge (2008) |
| Partner | Verena Kyratzes |
| Website | jonas-kyratzes.net |
Jonas Kyratzes is a German-Greek video game designer and author of video game industry related articles. [1]
Kyratzes' games are known for breaking with convention and being heavily story-driven. [2] Several of his games are thematically interconnected, often by the recurring figure of Urizen (first mentioned in The Great Machine) and other themes related to or inspired by the work of William Blake. With his wife, he created The Lands of Dream, a setting for many games, [3] a book, [4] and stories (see Stories below) he and his wife created.
He also has an interest in film, and in January 2009 he wrote and directed a short documentary about the 2008 Greek riots called The Greek Riots: Some Basic Facts. [5]
Jonas was born in Germany to a Greek father and a German mother, and raised in Greece. He has written several articles on video games, often advocating the concept that games are an art form. He is also politically active on the internet, blogging about political issues [6] and co-founding the Wikileaks Stories game-making initiative. [7] [8] [9] He describes his political stance as left-wing. [10]
He lives in Frankfurt, (Germany) with his wife, Verena.
Jonas has "collected" many stories that take place in the Lands of Dream. They are all illustrated by his wife, Verena. The stories are found in The Oneiropolis Compendium, [34] the Wanderers' Tales [35] (stories written by other authors that "traveled" to the Lands of Dream), and Likely Facts, [36] excerpts from The Book of Likely Facts (only published in the Lands of Dream), which was written by "Jorrum Dooga."
Faerûn is a fictional continent and the primary setting of the Dungeons & Dragons world of Forgotten Realms. It is described in detail in several editions of the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting with the most recent being the 5th edition from Wizards of the Coast, and various locales and aspects are described in more depth in separate campaign setting books. Around a hundred novels, several computer and video games and a film use Faerûn as the setting.
A fantasy trope is a specific type of literary trope that occurs in fantasy fiction. Worldbuilding, plot, and characterization have many common conventions, many of them having ultimately originated in myth and folklore. J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium for example, was inspired from a variety of different sources including Germanic, Finnish, Greek, Celtic and Slavic myths. Literary fantasy works operate using these tropes, while others use them in a revisionist manner, making the tropes over for various reasons such as for comic effect, and to create something fresh.
"The Slithering Shadow" is one of the original short stories starring the fictional sword and sorcery hero Conan the Cimmerian, written by American author Robert E. Howard and first published in the September 1933 issue of Weird Tales magazine. "The Slithering Shadow" is the original title, but the story is also known as "Xuthal of the Dusk" in further publications. It is set in the fictional Hyborian Age, and concerns Conan discovering a lost city in a remote desert while encountering a Lovecraftian demon known as Thog.
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Samorost 2 is a puzzle point-and-click adventure game developed by Amanita Design. Released for Windows, OS X and Linux on 8 December 2005, the game is the second video game title in the Samorost series and the sequel to Samorost. On 5 November 2020, the game received an update with enhanced visuals, brought fullscreen support & replaced level codes with a level select system. This version also received iOS & Android ports.
Hamlet or the Last Game without MMORPG Features, Shaders and Product Placement is an indie adventure game based on William Shakespeare's Hamlet. It was developed and published by indie game developer Denis Galanin.
Stargate is a 1995 platform game by Acclaim Entertainment for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and Genesis/Mega Drive. It follows the adventures of Colonel Jack O'Neill as he struggles to free the slaves of Abydos, defeat Ra, and get his mission team back home using the stargate device. The game is based on the 1994 film of the same name.
There have been several King's Quest fangames both original and retellings/remakes of the original games that have been released by various developers.
Dragon's Lair: The Legend is a 1991 side-scrolling platform video game for the Nintendo Game Boy developed by Elite Systems. The game is part of the Dragon's Lair franchise and stars Dirk the Daring, who explores the world attempting to collect all 194 fragments of the mythical Life Stone. The gameplay is an extreme departure from other games in the series as it includes no enemies and aside from its protagonist, no other established characters. It does however retain the grueling difficulty that the series is known for.
The Talos Principle is a 2014 puzzle video game developed by Croteam and published by Devolver Digital. It was simultaneously released on Linux, OS X and Windows in December 2014. It was released for Android in May 2015, for PlayStation 4 in October 2015, for iOS in October 2017, for Xbox One in August 2018, and Nintendo Switch in December 2019. Virtual reality-enabled versions for the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive were released on 18 October 2017. The downloadable content Road to Gehenna was released on 23 July 2015.
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Allen James Stroud is a researcher and university lecturer at Coventry University. He is currently leading the Creative Futures project, a funded research partnership between Coventry University and the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL). Previously, he was Course Leader for the BA Media (Hons) Top Up and BA (Hons) Media and Communications. Before that, he was the course leader for Film and Television Production and the Creative Writing for Publication degrees at Bucks New University. Up until the end of 2019, he was the editor of the British Fantasy Society Journal. He also composes instrumental music; however, Stroud is best known for his sci-fi fantasy novels and video game writing. He was the 2017 and 2018 chair of Fantasycon, the annual convention of the British Fantasy Society, which hosts the British Fantasy Awards.
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Clash: Artifacts of Chaos is a 2023 action-adventure game developed by ACE Team and published by Nacon. The game is the third installment in the Zeno Clash series. It was released for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S on March 9, 2023, to mixed reviews from critics.
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