games based on poems, short stories, and songs

the more esoteric equivalent of the books list. this one can probably expand still

Marwa Helal, ")[[:”.’.,:]]( Remixed" (2018)
The Beatles, "Yellow Submarine" (1966)
Unknown author (tr. Brian Stone), Alliterative "Morte Arthure", ~1400
Matsuo Basho, "furu ike ya / kawazu tobikomu / mizu no oto" (1686)
Robert W. Chambers, "Cassilda's Song" (1895)
Federico García Lorca, "Ciudad" (1922)
Rachel Swirsky & P.H. Lee, "Compassionate Simulation" (2019)
Robert E. Howard, "Queen of the Black Coast" (1934)
Robert W. Service, "The Cremation of Sam McGee" (1907)
various by Edgar Allan Poe, 1830s-1840s
Steely Dan, "Deacon Blues" (1977)
Courtney Barnett, "Depreston" (2015)
Hugh MacDiarmid, "A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle" (1926)
Lord Dunsany, "Where the Tides Ebb and Flow" (1910)
M.R. James, "An Evening's Entertainment" (1925)
Frank Stockton, "The Griffin and the Minor Canon" (1885)
Cable Ties, "Hope" (2020)
Jorge Luis Borges, "La casa de Asterión" ["The House of Asterion"] (1947)
They Might Be Giants, "Fingertips 6: I Found a New Friend" (1992)
various by Kenji Miyazawa, 1910s-1930s

(i'm a bit unclear on the specific source material of this game & if it'd be better suited to my list of games based on books, if you know more about it let me know)
Harlan Ellison, "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream" (1967)
Julio Cortázar, "Manual de instrucciones" ["The Instruction Manual"] (1962)
"In the Pines" [aka "Black Girl", "Where Did You Sleep Last Night"] (traditional)
"Pretty Polly" (traditional)
"Little Sadie" (traditional)
Gillian Welch & David Rawlings, "Caleb Meyer" (1998)
"The Knoxville Girl" (traditional)
Jorge Luis Borges, "El jardín de senderos que se bifurcan." ["The Garden of Forking Paths"] (1941)
Jorge Luis Borges, "La intrusa" ["The Intruder"/"The Interloper"] (1966)
Italo Calvino, "La distanza della luna" ["The Distance of the Moon"] (1965)
Lewis Carroll, "Jabberwocky" (1871)
Lord Dunsany, "The Journey of the King" (1906)
Pedro Lezcano Montalvo, "La Maleta" ["The Suitcase"] (1982)
Jorge Luis Borges, "La biblioteca de Babel" ["The Library of Babel"] (1941)
Jorge Luis Borges, "La biblioteca de Babel" ["The Library of Babel"] (1941)
Hans Christian Andersen, "Den Lille Pige med Svovlstikkerne" ["The Little Match Girl"] (1845)
e.e. cummings, "maggie and milly and molly and may" (1956)
Robert Frost, "Mending Wall" (1914)
Oscar Wilde, "The Selfish Giant" (1888)
Charles Perrault, "Le Petit Chaperon Rouge" ["Little Red Riding Hood"] (1697)
Wilhelm & Jacob Grimm, "Rotkäppchen" ["Little Red Cap"] (1812)
Archie Pelago, "Saturn V" (2014)
A.A. Milne; "The Charcoal-Burner", "The End" & "Binker" [from Now We Are Six] (1927)
Kobayashi Issa, "katatsumuri / soro soro nobore / fuji no yama" (1820s)
Hans Christian Andersen, "Snedronningen" ["The Snow Queen"] (1844)
William Carlos Williams, "This is Just to Say" (1934)
Jorge Luis Borges, "Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius" (1940)
Robert E. Howard, "The Tower of the Elephant" (1933)
Edgar Allan Poe, "The Cask of Amontillado" (1846)
Gabriel García Márquez, "Un señor muy viejo con unas alas enormes" ["A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings"] (1955)

13 Comments


2 years ago

Thanks for consistently finding and sharing so many niche and interesting games. Your presence adds a lot to this site :)
aw, thank you, that's really nice to hear. i've been in a pretty deep gaming rut and hardly touching anything other than picross but i do hope to get back into more of the finding interesting little things instead of just cataloging things i feel bad about not having played yet soon

2 years ago

Dante’s Inferno

2 years ago

Black Rock Shooter: The Game more or less (adapted from an anime based on a song based on an online drawing?)
i decided to put games based on dante's inferno on my list of book adaptations, as well as a few other epic poems (e.g. beowulf, the iliad), since with this list i was interested in adaptations of short-form works, but i'll give it some thought—the alliterative morte arthure is comparable in length to inferno and longer than beowulf, though that twine game only adapts a short passage from the poem
'based on an anime based on a song' is interesting but i'm looking for a more direct relationship, in the same way that with the books list i try to avoid games based on movies based on books

2 years ago

Along with Library of Blabber, there's also Library of Babel 3D. Is this list specifically for literature that is written by others? Like, intertextual to another text?
oops i think i added library of babel 3d to the database specifically to put it on this list and then forgot to do the second part

I'd consider including something where someone was adapting their own work from one format to another if the source material was previously published/available to view in some form (rather than just a step in the iterative process of the game's creation), and it was actually an adaptation of said material and not just a sequel or another story in the same setting

2 years ago

Ihatovo Monogatari would count? It's not about one short story, but looks like various ones from Kenji Miyazawa. It's like a literature universe put in one game.
Ihatovo Monogatari came up as a suggestion for the books list, unfortunately i haven't managed to find specific information on which Miyazawa works it incorporates so I'm still not sure which list it's best suited to, but i will add it here for now

2 years ago

Miyamoto stole the idea for Super Mario 3d World from a limerick I wrote:

There once was a kitty cat bell
It was floating on top of a hill
Mario saw it
Jumped right on it
Now he's a kitty as well

2 years ago

does Blade Runner count?
no, it's based on a movie (which in turn is based on a full-length novel, not a short story - i have another list for those)


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