Neji, the developer of Kafka at the Station (駅前のカフカ), a keyboard-driven adventure in which players type words to move the protagonist, said the game’s text is strongly influenced by novelist Haruki Murakami.

Kafka at the Station is a command-input adventure set at a train station somewhere in Japan. Players type words on the keyboard to direct the protagonist’s actions. Through interactions with a mysterious girl, the line between dream and reality gradually blurs. According to Game*Spark, the game is developed solely by Neji of Neji. Games. On August 8, 2026, Neji exhibited the game at Tokyo Game Dungeon 13, a showcase event held in Hamamatsucho, Tokyo.

Speaking to Game*Spark, Neji named 1980s command-input games such as Dezeni Land, released by Hudson Soft, as a major inspiration, explaining that the goal was to recreate, for a modern audience, the experience of typing your own words to search for the right answer. All the pixel art was drawn personally by Neji, with the characters and screen style drawing on 2000s bishoujo games. Regarding the writing, Neji said Murakami’s work is a favorite, and described trying to capture the sense of something not-quite-real quietly slipping into an otherwise ordinary day.

The feature also revealed details of the third chapter. The protagonist wakes up to find something is wrong at the workplace — the computer won’t turn on. Looking around, the protagonist notices the hands are missing from the clock. A note left by the person at the desk to the right instructs the player to send home another person who is working overtime at the desk to the left. When the reporter followed that instruction, the person floated into the air, crashed through the window, and vanished into the sky.

The full game is planned to include five chapters in total. According to Neji, players who can quickly think of the right commands might finish the whole game in about two hours. The release is planned for sometime from spring through summer 2027, with the Steam store page listing the year as 2027. It will be available for PC and Mac. The demo supports five languages: Japanese, English, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, and Korean. The first chapter is playable now in Kafka at the Station Demo on Steam.