About Us

FACTSHEET

Developer:
Oh, a Rock! Studios
Based in upstate New York

Founding date:
March 24, 2014

Head Boy:
Paul Franzen

Press/business contact
paul AT oharock DOT com

Website:
oharock.com

Social:
Facebook
Twitter
Podcast

RELEASES:
The Awkward Steve Duology
The Beard in the Mirror
Cat President: A More Purrfect Union
Francy Droo and the Mystery of the Missing Mother-in-Law
My Nigerian Prince

DESCRIPTION

Oh, a Rock! Studios is an indie videogame studio/loosely connected group of friends that makes funny, weird, and sincere adventure games, visual novels, and live-action FMV games.

HISTORY

Our studio was founded by the wife-and-husband team of Lizo Medina-Gray and Paul Franzen, two life-long adventure game fans from opposite sides of the tracks. (She’s a Sierra fangirl, and he’s a LucasArts fanboy.) They got their start making up interactive text adventure games through AOL Instant Messenger—one person would IM the other, saying something like “You wake up in the middle of the night to see a strange, beautiful woman hovering over your bed. What do you do?”, and the other person would type out responses and try to “win” the game, without getting themselves killed in some spectacularly unlikely fashion.

These early games formed the basis for Oh, a Rock!’s first major project, the point-and-click adventure game The Beard in the Mirror.

As Lizo’s focus turned more toward the academic side of gaming, Paul started reaching out to some of his close friends to expand the scope of the studio to include not just point-and-clickers, but visual novels and FMV games, too. He’s since partnered with writer/YouTuber Michael “Arglefumph” Gray on a number of titles, including Cat President: A More Purrfect Union and Francy Droo. Together, Michael and Paul also host a podcast on indie game development called “Oh, a Podcast!”.

The studio’s latest project is The Awkward Steve Duology, a black-and-white FMV game about trying to be a normal person. Awkward Steve was described by Waypoint as “a wonderfully weird creation,” and was chosen for exhibition at the Smithsonian American Art Museum as part of the SAAM Arcade.

VIDEOS

SCREENSHOTS

TEAM PHOTOS

IMG_1063 reception-145b

PRESS RELEASES

SELECTED ARTICLES

THE AWKWARD STEVE DUOLOGY:

  • “I assure you, you’ll have never experienced anything like it before.” – Rich, GameSpew
  • “Like Steve, this little title just deserves a chance to shine. They both have it in them—they just need the opportunity to prove it. – Heather Johnson, Hey Poor Player

The Beard in the Mirror: 

  • “A LucasArts/Sierra-inspired point-and-click style, a story of modern adult malaise-meets-childlike fantasy, and an absolutely charming husband-and-wife team that are infectiously passionate about their creation.”
    – Jillian Werner, GameZebo
  • “I fell in love with The Beard in the Mirror. As an homage to a much-loved genre, it succeeds stupendously. ” – Phoebe Knight, The Overpowered Noobs

Cat President

  • “This game is definitely one to keep out of the litter box, and should be set atop the scratching posts of fame for just how much fun you can have with it after a few drinks with some purrfect company.” – Respawning

INTERVIEWS

  • “This Awkward FMV Game Will Be Shown at the Smithsonian” – Waypoint (7/21/2017)
  • “Building an in-game hint hotline for The Beard In The Mirror” – Gamasutra (1/27/2017)
  • “Interview with Paul Franzen” – FMV World (12/16/2015)
  • “Mixing suspense, absurdity and FMV in A Stranger Comes Calling” – Gamasutra (10/12/2015)
presskit() by Rami Ismail (Vlambeer) – also thanks to these fine folks