It is a narrative adventure full of impenetrable schemes, insidious plot twists and conversations that slip out of hand.
Releases May 21st for PC, iOS, and Android, 100% free without any premium purchases or paywalled content.
Although you did nothing wrong, you were arrested one morning. You arrived for work, but you don’t recognize your assistants. And your upbringing left you with a pervasive sense of guilt. Welcome to Playing Kafka, an adventure about the alienation of modern society as well as unresolved family issues.
The game features:
- a fully voiced branching story, based on Kafka’s The Trial, The Castle and Letter To His Father
- atmospheric puzzles, fateful decisions and a drag and drop gameplay that makes characters and environments come alive
- approximately 1.5 hour of story in an ever-changing setting
The Steam page has more detailed info about each of the three chapters.
Playing Kafka was developed by us, award-winning indie studio Charles Games (Beecarbonize, Svoboda 1945 and more) and Goethe-Institut, Prague with a big help of renowned Kafka experts.
We did not want just to illustrate Kafka, but to craft a videogame that would reimagine his works and themes for the 21st century. To tell his stories in ways that are unique to the videogame medium. Adapting a work of an absurdist writer that weaved together social critique as well as very personal struggles is in line with our continued mission of creating socially engaged titles.
Let me then end up with a few quotes by our developers about how we approached Kafka’s work.
Lucie
“The goal was to craft a pensive atmosphere, where you can feel the loneliness and alienation present in Kafka’s texts. A hint of a farce, a bit of a dream. Instead of trying to be realistic, we wanted to craft a sort of inner landscape.”
Ondřej
“Playing Kafka is a way to bring Kafka’s work and its themes closer to the young generation. It’s a game for everybody, gamers and non-gamers, of all ages. You will experience Kafka’s worlds in a way that would not work in any other medium than a videogame.”
Vít
“We have studied Kafka’s books, diaries, and letters meticulously. We did not want to just illustrate Kafka’s works. We wanted to turn their atmosphere and social critique embedded within them into a game that can stand on its own.”
Alex
“Characters in the game become a bit like puppets, emphasizing the social, bureaucratic, and other structures that the heroes of Kafka’s novels find themselves caught in. We can tell Kafka’s stories in a way inherent to videogames.”