“Haiku Journey has stunningly beautiful graphics, relaxing music, superb atmosphere and fun but challenging puzzles. Haiku Journey is a very addictive game and worth the journey to become a Haiku Master.” —Zoomer In 2006, I served as editor
for “Haiku Journey,” a computer game published by Hot Lava (later MumboJumbo, and now Big Fish Games). In the game, you travel a route
through old Japan to the base of Mt. Fuji as you become a haiku master. To
advance, you find words in letter grids of various shapes (the shapes get
harder as you progress). As you find words, you start filling in blanks for a
mystery haiku—bonus points if you guess it correctly before all the letters are
provided (somewhat like TV’s “Wheel of Fortune”). The poems are all by
well-published English-language haiku poets, and one pleasure of the game is
finding out who wrote each haiku once it’s completed. As you progress through
the game, you also build a “book” of haiku that you can stop and peruse at any
time. The game also includes power-ups and surprises to keep it interesting and
challenging. Whether you use the time mode or the turn mode, the game is very
relaxing, a lot like haiku. Beautiful music and great graphics, too.
The database of haiku in “Haiku
Journey” includes 540 individual haiku by 45 different English-language haiku
poets from around the world, which I solicited and edited. Each poet has twelve
haiku included, three for each season. To reach the master level, players
typically encounter 150 to 200 haiku, which can take many sessions. If you
choose to start again as an apprentice, or switch to a different game mode,
you’ll likely encounter entirely different haiku along the way. As you progress
through each level, you can also read text I wrote about haiku, including a
definition, introductions to haiku techniques, histories of the great Japanese
haiku masters, and more. Click the following links to learn more about the game. You can play free for an hour, or download the full game for just $2.99 at Big Fish (also available at many other locations online, but Big Fish is cheapest). Currently for Windows only. + + —26 February, 15 May 2013, Redmond, Washington Featured Haiku Poets
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