New game aims to make Kafka’s work more accessible to young people
This June will mark 100 years since the death of Franz Kafka, the German-speaking Jewish writer who lived in Prague at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. To mark the occasion, Charles Games studio along with Prague’s Goethe Institute developed a 3D game set in the world of Kafka’s novels. The first module of the game, which is based on The Trial, is already available. The full version of the game will be released in May in Czech, English and German.
This June will mark 100 years since the death of Franz Kafka, the German-speaking Jewish writer who lived in Prague at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. To mark the occasion, Charles Games studio along with Prague’s Goethe Institute developed a 3D game set in the world of Kafka’s novels. The first module of the game, which is based on The Trial, is already available. The full version of the game will be released in May in Czech, English and German.
I discussed Playing Kafka with Charles Games’ Chief Technical Officer Ondřej Paška:
“We first approached the Goethe Institute about two years ago, suggesting we could do a project together. It was them who came up with the idea of the Kafka game, because of the looming centenary of his death. They said that they wanted to do a bigger game about Kafka.
“They had already done a game about Kafka before, but that was just a short VR experience based on the short story Metamorphosis. This time we wanted to make a longer game that would focus more on the actual texts of his novels.”
How long did it take to develop the game and what kind of targets did you set for yourselves?
“We took this as a big challenge, how to transform the works of Kafka into a playable game. We decided to divide it into three parts. The first two parts are based on the novels The Trial and Castle, and the third one is a kind of intermezzo, based on The Letter to My Father.
“It took as about half a year to develop a prototype which we then iterated and launched last year. We then took a bit of a break to analyse the feedback and we are now polishing the last bits of the last two modules. So basically it took a bit over a year, but we didn’t work on it full-time.”
How would you describe the main goal of the game? Is it to educate or to entertain, or both?
“It’s actually both, but the main focus is to make Kafka fresh for people who might be put off by reading his texts or who might not think Kafka is something that’s fun for them. What we want is to reach new audiences and hopefully we can achieve that with our game.”
What is your target audience? Would you say it is intended primarily for young readers? I'm asking because Charles Games have previously released many educational games…
“It is true that Charles Games released some games primarily intended for the classroom. But with this game and most of the games that we are currently working on, we are actually aiming for the general audience.
“Kafka is probably too complex for anyone under 12, but above that there is no upper limit, so we were aiming to make it as accessible as possible. There are no fast-moving objects or logical puzzles that are too hard or complex. We really aimed to make accessible even people who don’t play regularly and are looking for a new way to consume Kafka’s work.”
You released the first part of the game, inspired by The Trial, in June last year. Can you tell us a bit more about the game? How does it work?
As you go through the different scenes the world gets progressively more bizarre, up until the very dark end.
“So in all three games you have the protagonist from The Trial, Joseph K, and you are basically thrown into the same situation as he was at the beginning of The Trial. So you look at the scene from a third person view, as if you are looking on a theatre stage.
“The characters come and go and they talk to Joseph K. You can drag him around as if he was a puppet which creates interaction and sparks a dialogue with the other characters. That’s the way you move forward. As you go through the different scenes the world gets progressively more bizarre, up until the very dark end.”
As a player, you can actually make choices which then affect the course of the game. But can you ultimately change the outcome of the story?
“That was the main challenge in interpreting a novel. How do you make the player choices? So we took the liberty to create a bit of wiggle room for the player. In The Trial, you can choose to trust the advocate and let him help you, or you can go with his secretary or the maid, Lenny.
“In each of the parts, you have some decisions to make, but ultimately the ending will be very similar. So you can try to get yourself cleared of the accusations and try to win at the court, but ultimately it's all going to end badly.”
What I also found a bit disturbing was the fact that the characters have blank faces. Was that a deliberate choice?
One of the main themes we wanted to portray was the alienation and the anonymity of the bureaucratic machinery.
“One of the main themes we wanted to portray was the alienation and the anonymity of the bureaucratic machinery. So that’s one way we tried to do that, having very sparse characters and sparse environments.
“That was one of the big issues at the start of the project, where we developed the art style. We ended up with this one, which is very eye catching but it is also very much in line with the themes of anxiety, bureaucracy, alienation and so on.”
We should also say it is your first 3D game.
“Yeah, we of course worked on different 3D games for different companies, but as Charles Games, this is our first fully 3D game.”
So, why have you made this choice to make it a 3D game?
“It is of course something to do with appeal for the players. When they see a 2D game, they might think it is going to be too simple or too easy. We wanted to offer them a game that has higher production values.
“But I also think the art style really fits the game very well. I think a 2D style would be too much like a book illustration and could seem a bit dated. But I guess that’s a question for our art designers and art directors.”
The first part of the game was released last June. What kind of feedback have you received so far?
“People were very happy and excited about the game, especially kids, when they could play it instead of having normal school lessons.
“Some people thought that there was too much reading, but we obviously cannot get rid of the text in a game about a writer. Instead, we decided to add full voice-over for every line. That’s actually what we are doing at the moment. We are recording the voiceovers by professional actors for all three of the languages: Czech, English and German.”
And you are talking about the full version, which is due to come out in May…
“Exactly, that’s for the full version.”
When you said that some of the users complained about reading too much, weren’t you worried at the very beginning that a game about Kafka simply wouldn’t appeal to young players?
“At the beginning, we really didn’t know that much about Kafka as a game studio or as players. We held a series of workshops with the Goethe Institute and with external experts, trying to figure out what it is that makes Kafka’s texts appealing and relevant today.
“We actually discovered that he was in many ways pretty much ahead of his time. The challenge was to take what he was writing about, all of these really interesting thoughts and feelings, and make them a little bit more appealing for younger people.
“First of all, we decided to include his original texts, because he was a real wordsmith and his brilliance was in the way he worked with words. That’s why most of the texts in the game are taken straight from his novels.
“We also were aware that people don’t want to read long texts in a game, so we interspersed the text with as much animation and interaction as possible. Hopefully we will succeeded in making people read the texts while not being too bored.”
For those who like Kafka, it will be something like a dream game. I myself haven't read too much of Kafka outside of what I had to for school, but I became a big fan of his after working on this project!”
The game will be released on the occasion of Franz Kafka’s centenary. What is the thing that makes Kafka's writing relevant for young readers?
“I think the themes that Kafka explored, such as loneliness and a kind of existential dread in the face of nameless bureaucratic organizations, is as relevant as ever, whether you are talking about the state bureaucracy or the machinery of big tech companies.
“Even his description of his personal life and his relationship to his father is something that was really ahead of the psychoanalytical theories of the time. I think it is very relatable for young people and maybe their relationship with their parents.”
