Play

The eternal Nobel bridesmaid Haruki Murakami writes novels and short stories that are known for surreal plots, involving as they do parallel worlds, talking cats, ear fetishes, faceless villains, body doubles, and mysterious women, to cite a few of the weird turns the tales take. He has inspired fans, wannabe clones, films and many late-night discussions.

Now, a video game project has joined that list. Called Memoranda, it's inspired by Murakami's short stories. It's been conceived by a team named Bit Byterz. Says one of the members: "Three years ago I sat down with a friend to brainstorm for making a game. We both came up with the idea of a game inspired by short stories of renowned Japanese author Haruki Murakami. His work had inspired us profoundly and we thought that the vague, surrealistic reality of his fictional world would have a great potential for being turned into something visual and could lead to the creation of odd characters, an essential element in game design. After a while, my friend moved to another country, but I continued working on the idea. I wrote a script for the game, inspired by more than 20 stories by Murakami and started working on the game with a new team."

The 2D point-and-click adventure game revolves around a woman who is slowly forgetting her own name. The characters include a WWII surviving soldier, an elephant hoping to become human and a weird bird man among others. All the characters lose things, and the gamer's mission is to solve the puzzles and help the main character retrieve her name.

The recurring features in Murakami's books lend themselves easily to games, two of which already exist in traditional form: a Murakami Bingo and a drinking game.