Jonas Kyratzes Explained

Jonas Kyratzes
Birth Date:	1984 5, df=y
Birth Place:	Wiesbaden, West Germany (now Germany)
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)
Occupation:	Video game designer, writer
Nationality:	Greek, German
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]

Career

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.

Games

• Last Rose in a Desert Garden (2000): Fatalistic but very short, which takes place in the aftermath of a nuclear war.
• The Infinite Ocean (2003, 2010 remake), deals with the concept of existentialism, centered on a sentient computer.
• The Great Machine: A Fragment, an experimental work of interactive fiction about the horrors of war.
• The Museum of Broken Memories (2006), which also deals with themes relating to war, but is made up of a number of interrelated story fragments.^{[11] [12]}
• The Strange and Somewhat Sinister Tale of the House at Desert Bridge (2009), a humorous fantasy with melancholic undertones, set in the Lands of Dream.^{[13] [14]}
• Phenomenon 32, a post-apocalyptic 2D exploration platformer set in an alternate universe.^[15]
• You Shall Know The Truth, a political game about WikiLeaks^[16]
• Alphaland (2011), a platformer set inside an unfinished (alpha) game. Terry Cavanagh is credited as a programmer.^{[17] [18]}
• The Book of Living Magic (2011), another game set in the Lands of Dream, in which a girl named Raven Locks Smith leaves the town of Dull to find The Book of Living Magic.^[19]
• Arcadia: A Pastoral Tale (2012), another work of interactive fiction (a text-based game).^[20]
• The Fabulous Screech (2012), a Lands of Dream installment expanding on the feline character it is named for, whom was first introduced in The Book of Living Magic.^[21]
• Traitor (2012), Kyratzes' most mechanic-based game, a vertical shooter about a mercenary's role in a growing revolutionary conflict.^[22]
• The Sea Will Claim Everything (2012), his first commercial game, involving another Lands of Dream scenario where a biotechnological dwelling called Underhome must face foreclosure.^[23]
• Moonlight (2012), a surreal text-based game that contains Stephen Fry, Oscar Wilde, Alpha Centauri, eagles, and many more things.
• The Matter of the Great Red Dragon (2014), a text-based Lands of Dream game^[24]
• The Talos Principle (2014), hired as a writer by Croteam
• A Postcard From Afthonia (2014), his latest Lands of Dream game, in which the player helps out a cat and a dog, who are married, during a war.^[25]
• (2017)^[26]
• Phoenix Point (2018), developing the narrative and stories for Snapshot Games.^{[27] [28] [29]}
• Serious Sam 4 (2020)^[30]
• The Eternal Cylinder (2021)^[31]
• (2023)^[32]
• The Talos Principle II (2023)^[33]

Book

• Στη σκιά του Αόρατου Βασιλιά (In the Shadow of the Invisible King), (2013) is currently only available in Greek. It takes place in the Lands of Dream.

Stories

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."

Future projects

• Super Omega Land, another platforming game
• Ithaka of the Clouds, a Lands of Dream text-based game. This game was originally crowdfunded, but Jonas decided to rename it The Council of Crows. Ithaka of the Clouds became a very different (and less expensive) game than Jonas had originally planned.

External links

• Official website
  • An interview with Kyratzes at Gnome's Lair
• Kyratzes YouTube account
• Lands of Dream official website

Notes and References

1. http://www.escapistmagazine.com/profiles/articles/Jonas%20Kyratzes The Escapist : Profiles : Jonas Kyratzes
2. For anyone that is familiar with Kyratzes' work, Desert Bridge at once is familiar territory and a departure from the norm. It is familiar in that it has a tendency to break with convention as well as being a game driven by its plot and story JayIsGames
3. Web site: Games | Lands of Dream.
4. Web site: Books | Lands of Dream.
5. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKriq2pf-7A The Greek Riots: Some Basic Facts at YouTube
6. Web site: Enemies of Reason The Greek Situation . 7 March 2011 . https://web.archive.org/web/20101216043756/http://enemiesofreason.co.uk/2010/03/22/the-greek-situation/ . 16 December 2010 . dead .
7. http://www.ecrans.fr/Wikileaks-entre-en-jeu,11696.html Wikileaks entre en jey – Ecrans (French)
8. http://www.gamesetwatch.com/2010/12/gnomes_lair_proposes_wikileaks.php GameSetWatch – Gnome's Lair Proposes Wikileaks Stories
9. https://web.archive.org/web/20101210170100/http://technolog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2010/12/08/5612940-coming-soon-wikileaks-the-game Technolog – Coming soon... WikiLeaks: The Game
10. Neeb, Christian. "Stete Tropfen". GEE, March 2011, Issue 58, p. 80.
11. http://indieventure.blogspot.com/2006/11/museum-of-broken-memories-review.html Independent Adventuring: The Museum of Broken Memories
12. http://www.mobygames.com/game/museum-of-broken-memories MobyGames: The Museum of Broken Memories
13. http://jayisgames.com/archives/2009/02/the_strange_and_somewhat_sinister_tale_of_the_house_at_desert_bridge.php JayIsGames Review of Desert Bridge
14. http://www.mobygames.com/game/strange-and-somewhat-sinister-tale-of-the-house-at-desert-bridge MobyGames: The Strange and Somewhat Sinister Tale of the House at Desert Bridge
15. http://www.gnomeslair.com/2010/07/evils-of-phenomen-32.html Gnome's Lair: The evils of Phenomenon 32
16. Neeb, Christian. "Stete Tropfen". GEE, March 2011, Issue 58, p. 80.
17. http://jayisgames.com/archives/2011/05/alphaland.php JayIsGames Review of Alphaland
18. http://indiegames.com/2011/05/browser_game_pick_alphaland_jonas_kyratzes.html Browser Game Pick: Alphaland (Jonas Kyratzes)
19. http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/08/26/this-weeks-best-free-pc-games-13/ This week's best free PC games
20. http://indiegames.com/2012/01/browser_game_pick_arcadia_jona.html Browser Game Pick: Arcadia (Jonas Kyratzes)
21. http://jayisgames.com/archives/2012/02/the_fabulous_screech.php JayisGames Review of The Fabulous Screech.
22. http://jayisgames.com/archives/2012/03/traitor.php JayisGames Review of Traitor
23. http://landsofdream.net/games/the-sea-will-claim-everything/ The Sea Will Claim Everything's About Page
24. Web site: The Matter of the Great Red Dragon - Walkthrough, Tips, Review.
25. http://jayisgames.com/review/a-postcard-from-afthonia.php JayisGames review of A Postcard From Afthonia
26. Web site: Serious Sam VR: The Last Hope. Kyratzes. Jonas. October 21, 2016. October 6, 2020.
27. News: Phoenix Point teases horrors, recruits X-COM composer. Smith. Adam. 16 March 2017. Rock, Paper, Shotgun. 16 June 2017.
28. Web site: From X-Com to Phoenix Point . gamasutra.com . 3 May 2017 . 13 June 2017.
29. Web site: Stories of Phoenix Point . phoenixpoint.info . 13 June 2017.
30. Web site: Big Sam 4 news! Screenwriters confirmed!. 25 September 2015.
31. Web site: Updating Soon. Kyratzes. Jonas. 3 March 2022. jonas-kyratzes.net.
32. Web site: Updating Soon. Kyratzes. Jonas. 3 March 2022. jonas-kyratzes.net.
33. Web site: Romano. Sal. June 8, 2023. The Talos Principle II ‘Gameplay’ trailer. Gematsu. June 9, 2023.
34. Web site: The Oneiropolis Compendium | Lands of Dream.
35. Web site: Wanderers' Tales | Lands of Dream.
36. Web site: Likely Facts | Lands of Dream.