In Focus: Vention of Kefrens
                                                                          
         Interrogatory Performed by DarkHawh of Iris
                                                                       

Yep,  I  have been kinda' busy on IRC,
interviewing  old  legends,so here's a
shoort  interview,  that  I  did  with
Vention  the other day.  Hope you like
it,  and that you get some information
out   of   it,  which  was  previously
unknown to you!


Darkhawk:
Well  well,  now  we're  going to do a
totally   unexpected   interview  with
Vention,  known  for  being  in groups
like  Kefrens and Polka Brothers.  Yes
dear  reader,  we  met  him  one  late
evening,  where  we  should  have been
boozing   christmasbeers   instead  of
being  on the IRC, but nooo..  Anyway,
let's  begin  this  interview..   By..
ehh.   Asking  your  name!  And, to be
boring,  etc.,  tell the readers about
your scenic past too, just sum up what
groups  you've been in, releases, etc.
Then we'll get more personal later on!

Vention:
Well..   My  name is Martin Gram.  But
I'm  afraid  that  I'm better known as
Vention/Kefrens.    I  joined  Kefrens
around  91/92  and  stayed there till'
94/95 (I guess).  After TP4 we decided
to move Polka Brothers from a subgroup
of Kefrens to its own little thing.  I
left Polka in 94' to start working for
a  norwegian games developer.  While I
was  in  Kefrens  I worked on Guardian
Dragon  II,  D.A.N.E & the Hidden part
in  Desert  Dream (big deal!!).  Other
than that Laxity and I worked on a lot
of  intros and a bunch of other stuff,
not worthy being mentioned here.

Darkhawk:
Okay!   However  I  think  that  a bit
unfairly,  you've  always stood in the
shadow  of  Laxity  (or Merge rather),
isn't  it  true that people think more
of  him  when  they  envision Guardian
Dragon  II  and  D.A.N.E  e.g?  Did he
make the most codework or what?

Vention:
I  don't  think  that  it  was unfair.
Laxity  and I were (Hope we still are)
very  good  friends.  We made Guardian
Dragon   II  together  with  an  equal
amount  of  work,  but  the  demo  had
always been Laxity's idea.  So from my
point  of  view it's okay that he gets
more  credits.  But with D.A.N.E I did
90%  of  the programming.  D.A.N.E was
only  made  because  I  wanted to do a
demo on my own.

(You  can't  actually see it, but here
there  was  a one day break, before we
began anew, heh)

Darkhawk:
Ok, let's continue.  Now you did games
for  Funcom  as I happen to know, what
games have you made, and did they sell
well?   Did you like making games (for
FunCom)?

Vention:
I did one game for FunCom.  A platform
game  called Nightmare Circus.  Didn't
really  do  well,  as far as I know it
was  only  released  inBrazil  ;) So I
can't  say  that  it  did well.  But I
didn't  like  making  gamesfor FunCom.
So  after  1.5  years time I started a
new company with 5 other FunCom'ers.

Darkhawk:  Ahh, please tell more about
this  company, its name, what you have
done,  etc.   Not  many  people  liked
working for FunCom as it were ;)

Vention:
The  new  company  is called Innerloop
(Studios)  and we've just finished our
first   game   called   Joint   Strike
Fighter.   The  company  is located in
Oslo, Norway and at the moment there's
about 20 employees working on N64, PSX
and PC.

Darkhawk:
That  sounds  interesting!   Are there
some   other   old   sceners  in  your
company, our readers might wonder?

Vention:
Yes  actually  quite  a  lot  of them!
LoneStarr/Spaceballs,     Jason/Melon,
Joachim/Melon just to mention a few.

Darkhawk:  Hmm, now we know where they
are!   ;)  And  they (and you) have no
feelings  left  for the scene anymore?
I  mean,  are  some  of you planning a
comeback,  keeping  in  touch with the
scene, etc?

Vention:
The  scene is still interesting, but I
don't  think  that a major comeback is
on its way..  ;) I know that Joachim &
Jason still are members of Melon.  But
I  guess that all we'll ever do on the
scene,  will be attending the parties!
;)

Darkhawk:
Yeah   well,   members  on  the  paper
atleast.  You still own and adore your
Amiga above all others, or have you no
Amiga anymore?  (EHH?) ;)

Vention:
I  still  have  the  A4040 that Desert
Dream  won at TG93.  So I'm still fond
of the Amiga.  But I don't use it that
much anymore.  Too much programming at
work!  ;)

Darkhawk:
Ahh,  do  you have a hard working day,
or is the pace more leisurely?

Vention:
The  working  days  aren't  that  hard
anymore,  but  that's only because the
game is finished.  If you had asked me
this  question  1  month  ago, I would
have answered differently..  ;)

Darkhawk:
Heh, guess you'll not stop at one game
anyway :) But speaking about stopping,
I  am  way  behind schedule now, so we
have  to  stop,  although I could have
made  this interview much longer :( As
is  usual, you may get to say the last
words..  Greetings, speeches, etc ;)

Vention:  Well then, that was cool.  I
think  I'll  greet all the guys I know
and  who  know  me.  Have a nice time.
And  Merge, if you read this send me a
mail at martin@innerloop.no.  Bye bye!