The Franz Kafka Videogame

The Franz Kafka Videogame
DeveloperDenis Galanin
PublisherDaedalic Entertainment
ComposerJonathan Geer
EngineMoai
PlatformsMicrosoft Windows, iOS, Android
ReleaseWindows
  • WW: 6 April 2017
iOS
  • WW: 18 July 2017
Android
  • WW: 3 July 2018
GenresAdventure, puzzle
Mode

The Franz Kafka Videogame is an indie adventure game inspired by the writings of Franz Kafka. It was developed by Denis Galanin.

Plot

The protagonist, K., gets a sudden offer of employment. This event changes his life, forcing him to make a distant voyage. To his surprise, the world beyond his homeland appears to be stranger than he thought.

Gameplay

The Franz Kafka Videogame features gameplay similar to Denis Galanin's previous game. The player interacts with the world through a simple point and click interface. The goal of The Franz Kafka Videogame is to solve a series of puzzles and brain teasers. The puzzles are sequentially linked, forming an adventure story. The game contains no inventory, and the solving of puzzles mainly consists of clicking onscreen elements in the correct order. Solving a puzzle will immediately transport the player character to the next screen.

Development

The Franz Kafka Videogame was developed over a period of 2.5 years by Denis Galanin.

The game was fully improvised throughout the entire period of development.[1]

Reception

The announcement of The Franz Kafka Videogame in 2013 attracted the interest of such non-video game media as Time,[7] NBC News,[8] NY Daily News,[9] etc.

The game was recognized as a cultural asset and selected for the permanent collection of Deutsches Literaturarchiv Marbach.[10][11]

On review aggregate OpenCritic, The Franz Kafka Videogame had an average 66 out of 100 review score with 17% approval rating based on 12 reviews.[3] On review aggregator Metacritic, the game received a 64 out of 100, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

Critics praised the visual style, while criticizing the short length and confusing puzzles. Riot Pixels said the game was "a beautiful nightmare, cozy and purple like A-minor." Renata Ntelia at Adventure Gamers said it was "a pleasant little puzzle game that will evoke a lightweight nostalgia for people that have prior knowledge of its namesake's work," but argued that "its limited gameplay ultimately doesn't provide anything more than a couple hours, at most, of surreal diversion." Harvard L. at Digitally Downloaded called it "a game which is often confusing and unintuitive, but it gets away with it under the guise of being true to its source material.

Accolades

YearAwardCategoryResultRef
2015 Intel Level Up Game Developer Contest The Grand Prix (Game of the Year) Won [12]
Best Adventure/Role Playing Game Won
2017 The Hollywood Music in Media Awards Best Song/Score - Mobile Video Game Won [13]
TOMMI Award Best PC Game Nominated [14]
TapTap Game Awards Best Visual Art Nominated [15]
2018 The Pedagogical Media Prize Best Educational Games for Adolescents Won [16]
14th International Mobile Gaming Awards Nominated [17]

References

  1. ↑ Galanin, Denis (17 April 2017). "Improvisational Game Design". Game Developer. Retrieved 23 November 2023.
  2. ↑ "The Franz Kafka Videogame for PC Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on 22 June 2026. Retrieved 27 December 2018.
  3. 1 2 "The Franz Kafka Videogame for PC Reviews". OpenCritic. OpenCritic.com, LLC. 4 April 2017. Archived from the original on 22 June 2026. Retrieved 1 January 2026.
  4. ↑ "Review: Riot Pixels". Riot Pixels. 2017-04-04. Archived from the original on 2017-09-01. Retrieved 2017-08-26.
  5. ↑ Ntelia, Renata (14 November 2018). "The Franz Kafka Videogame". Adventure Gamers. Archived from the original on June 9, 2019. Retrieved 3 September 2019.
  6. ↑ L., Harvard. "Review: The Franz Kafka Videogame (PC)". Digitally Downloaded. Archived from the original on 3 September 2019. Retrieved 3 September 2019.
  7. ↑ Grossman, Samantha (5 December 2013). "A Franz Kafka Video Game Is Coming But Who Cares Since Life Is Pointless and Nothing Matters". Time. Archived from the original on 10 April 2026. Retrieved 22 June 2026.
  8. ↑ "Existential dread achievement unlocked! It's the 'Franz Kafka Videogame'". nbcnews.com. 4 December 2013. Archived from the original on 27 April 2025. Retrieved 22 June 2026.
  9. ↑ "Franz Kafka video game in the works". nydailynews.com. Archived from the original on 2022-09-21. Retrieved 2026-06-22.
  10. ↑ Computerspiele. dla-marbach.de
  11. ↑ Archival record in DLA Kallías catalog. dla-marbach.de
  12. ↑ 2015 Intel® Level Up Game Dev Contest — And the Winners Are Archived 2015-09-05 at the Wayback Machine. intel.com
  13. ↑ HMMA Winners Archived 3 July 2018 at the Wayback Machine. hmmawards.com
  14. ↑ Gewinner und Nominierte Archived 2017-10-25 at the Wayback Machine kindersoftwarepreis.de
  15. ↑ TapTap Game Awards 2017 Best Visual Art Nominees Archived 2019-06-23 at the Wayback Machine. tap.io
  16. ↑ Preistraeger 2018 Archived 2019-08-12 at the Wayback Machine. pädagogischer-medienpreis.de
  17. ↑ WINNERS & NOMINEES Archived 2018-09-19 at the Wayback Machine. imgawards.com
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