Playing Kafka

Playing Kafka is a fully voiced adventure about alienation, unresolved family issues and life within systems governed by unclear rules. It adapts three works by Franz Kafka: The Trial, The Castle and Letter to His Father. Across branching stories, you face an opaque trial, try to understand an elusive job and struggle with a father’s imposing presence. The game’s story takes approximately 1.5 hours.

Three Kafka stories

In the chapter based on The Trial, you arrive at work one morning to find that you do not recognize your assistants, and learn that you have been arrested despite having done nothing wrong. You decide how to approach the vague accusation, whom to ask for help and how to speak with judges, procurators and others as the judgment draws closer. The legal process draws you into a web of perplexing bureaucracy, leaving you to question whether your innocence matters.

The chapter inspired by Letter to His Father explores Kafka’s tense relationship with his father. In scenes from the past, you try to find the right words as Franz struggles to connect with him and considers whether reconciliation is possible.

In the story based on The Castle, you arrive at a snow-covered village to work as a land surveyor. The locals speak of the village Castle in hushed tones, and each day raises more questions about whether you can ever gain acceptance from it.

Decisions and puzzles

Atmospheric puzzles and consequential decisions shape the branching story. Drag-and-drop gameplay brings characters and environments to life, while the setting changes as the story unfolds.