FACTSHEET
Game Title:
The Big Hollow: 1982
Developer:
Krams Design
website
Demo Release Date:
January 12th 2026
Game Release Date:
TBA 2026
Platforms:
Steam (PC, Mac)
- main game link
- demo link
GOG (PC, Mac)
Regular Price:
TBC
Social Links:
- bluesky
- youtube
- instagram
- twitter / x
ART ASSETS (individual & rar)
GOOGLE DRIVE
LOCAL DOWNLOAD (rar)KEY ART / LOGOS / SCREENSHOTS / VIDEO
Description
The Big Hollow: 1982 is a dark, atmospheric 2D animated murder mystery inspired by grounded serial killer fiction such as The Silence of the Lambs and True Detective (which seek to intimately intertwine the psychology of the detectives with their cases) as well as the deduction based gameplay mechanics of The Golden Idol and Ace Attorney franchises.
For fans of true crime, puzzles, and modernized 2D point-and-click adventures alike, this is a tightly focused 2.5 to 3 hour experience - an answer to those with limited time who still want an engrossing game without sacrificing the complexity of a mature narrative.
Primarily, the gameplay mechanics involve collecting evidence from ever expanding sources (crime scenes, testimonies, notepad indentations, and more), forming questions about what is observed, and then using that evidence to solve these questions. Answers lead naturally into more discoveries, more evidence, and more questions, a process that continues until your killer is found. Secondarily, players will be invited to interpret various aspects of crimes throughout - the behaviors of the killer, the behaviors of the victim, the similarities between victims, and more - in order to test their attention to detail as they progress.
Features
- A gritty setting beautifully illustrated with a unique 2D art style in 4k resolution,
- Techniques inspired by FBI thought processes and procedure,
- Music from the talented Nick Roder (Roadwarden, This Dead Winter, Mary & George),
- Partial voice acting, with a carefully designed bank of lines to further immerse players
- A gradual and natural expansion of evidence and complexity
Story
It's 1982, and in a small truck stop community where everybody knows everybody, Ida and Bonnie's disappearances left questions that no one dared to ask out loud. For the FBI, where the term 'serial killer' is as new as their Behavioral Science Unit, this case isn’t just about murder—it's a test of whether these monsters can really be mapped.
You play as Desmond, a young FBI recruit in training learning the brand new concepts of criminal profiling under Lenore Davidson, a cold, exacting representative of the BSU. She's tasked you to review a recently solved case: the strangled bodies of two women along the same stretch of backroad deep in America's coal country. Question is, do you have what it takes to prove your worth?
About Krams Design
The Big Hollow: 1982 is a solo project by developer Dane Krams of Krams Design - me! In 2015, I released my acclaimed point and click adventure game Anna's Quest, garnering the attention of genre giant publisher Daedalic Entertainment and winning the category of 'Best Story' from the (at the time) well respected AdventureGamers.com (which, by the way, beat out legend-to-the-genre Tim Schafer's Broken Age).
Though successful, Anna's Quest was an exercise in pure fun, an endulgement in LucasArts goofball silliness. For The Big Hollow: 1982, I wanted to step back to my experiences in film - push myself to create a game more complex and considered. Having studied, worked in, and also taught film, I wanted to challenge myself by exploring deeper, more mature ideas typical of the screen, but perhaps not as commonly found in games. Narrative that tied not just themes and character intimately together, but also gameplay choices and mechanics.
The project has been a long labor of love, conceived over 10 years ago, with work already having spanned much further than just this title. While very much a complete and standalone game, if players respond to The Big Hollow: 1982 in the way that I hope they do, there will be much more of the world to follow...
