It all started with Alexa

"Computer, log entry." What was pure science fiction in the 1960s has long since become the present and is often already part of everyday life as technology. Science has already brought many of the ideas of science fiction authors to reality. Starting with travel to unknown celestial bodies, extraterrestrial and futuristic technology, through advanced medicine, to high-performance materials with biotechnological properties. Thanks to voice assistants such as Alexa, Siri, Cortana, and Bixby, the voice-controlled onboard computer of the "Starship Enterprise" is no longer just fiction, but has long since become part of our everyday communication.

For us, it all started six years ago with "Alexa" - when the first generation, the Amazon Echo, moved into our living room at home and awakened our developer curiosity. Along with the fun and enjoyment of the clever voice assistant came curiosity about what else was possible with this new device. "Turn on the lights" and "Play my favorite music" were of course inspiring and charming at first, but also quickly became kind of a given. As a full stack developer, Mathias was the first of us to get deep into the matter around Amazon "Alexa" and released our first skill "Time Machine" in 2017. The little skill, which revealed daily what historical events happened today in the past, quickly became a user favorite. The first steps fueled more and more new ideas for skills with which we wanted to entertain, inspire, and arouse curiosity in our listeners.

In addition to our main jobs, the three of us soon put our heads together in our free time and developed our first ideas for games that could be controlled solely by voice. As a passionate gamer, Mathias has always been into the world of games. After the millennium, he fought his way through LAN parties and later through online gaming worlds, while for Yvonne and Sebastian, playing games stopped with "Mau Mau" and "Mensch ärgere dich nicht". Both of them rarely held a controller in their hands during their childhood and youth. The idea that she, Yvonne, a library employee and bookworm, would one day help develop audio games was unthinkable.

Later, she and Sebastian worked as newspaper editors, writing about current events. But in the meantime, their texts are not only read by people, but also heard. Their words are the actual voices behind Alexa. They make sure that Alexa doesn't just say anything, but speaks with sense, reason, and also with heart. Meanwhile, Mathias develops the programming codes and game mechanics, and solves balancing problems.

From this collaboration, we founded our startup "Krögoor Entertainment" in 2018. Since then, we have released over 15 skills in eight countries and five languages, mainly in the games and entertainment category of the "Skill Store". During this time, our game skills have grown in complexity and are constantly evolving. With over 20,000 daily players, we continue to expand our reach. Winning the "Customer's Choice Most Engaging Game Skill Award" in December 2019 for our "Cherish the Prize" skill made us very proud and further spurred us to develop even more interactive and engaging skills. We love to entertain with our skills, make stories audible and games accessible.