By Kieron Gillen on September 15th, 2010 at 1:57 pm.

I’m sure that everyone will agree, what we were hoping the man behind the blistering Boss Rush would do next would be a game about making haikus. Our hopes are answered. Haiku Hero basically challenges you to make haikus (Three-line poems in a 5, 7, 5 sylables structure – English Teacher Ed) against a time limit. To make it trickier, as you turn up the difficulty level, it sets limits – like having it rhyme, include set words or only have words with a certain number of syllables. Here’s Chris Cornell’s designers notes. “Since it has already lead to one of my playtesters filling my inbox with Cthulhu-themed haikus for a week, I consider it a win,” he informs me, “I’ve decided that this subgenre should be officially called “Haiku-hlus”. Inform the authorities!” Consider the authorities informed. Go get poetositing, gaming sorts!


Comment will be wise
If position is alright
I fear reply fail
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First comment in thread?
How could it be reply fail?
I fear for you mind.
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This game looks very odd
Maybe it has Dinosaurs
Then it would be good
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http://godzillahaiku.tumblr.com/
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Feels a little weird,
writing haikus in english
but yeah, it’s funny!
Lol! Thanks for the link, Ian :)
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That’s incredible
You found the Dinosaurs
Now the game is good
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It already had dinosaurs!
The description on congregate:
“Quick, how fast can you make a haiku? That includes the world “tyrannosaurus?” And none of the letter D? And rhymes?”
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I like this concept. It would be even better if it could slowly but automatically increase the difficulty – add more rules as you go and such. It would also be cool if it extended to other forms of poetry – odes and sonnets, perhaps. I’d say limericks, but everyone knows how to do a limerick. I think it would be pretty good at teaching people how to write poems of all sorts, basically.
Haiku away!
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Haiku thread: stupid
or fun? – Fred Wester, CE
O of Paradox
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Right. Right. Right. Right. Right.
RIght. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right.
(That’s enough right – ed.)
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I read over my haikus after the five minutes and, jesus, if these are the things that first pop into my head then I need a lifestyle change.
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Boo! The dictionary doesn’t have ursine or undead. How am I to write my epic tale of battles against zombie polar bears?
I lured it from their
igloo, that ursine undead,
with rotting fish heads.
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Nor monosyllabic! There goes my meta-haiku.
What kind of poetry game has such a limited vocabulary? Rubbish!
Anyone else found good words it doesn’t know?
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It refused “sneakiest”, “motherfuckin” and “buttsecks”, so far.
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It doesn’t like “wankers” or “wanky” either.
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Well, if it was just ‘dirty’ words it didn’t accept, I’d understand. By why not susurrus? It’s a good word! At least it accepts both English and American spellings of things, mostly
Also, Doctor, you left the g of the end of motherfucking.
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Don’t want no motherfuckin’ gs at the end of my motherfuckin’ motherfuckins, dude.
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@Pandaemonius – Susurrus is indeed a great word. As is coruscate.
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I see we have some Terry Pratchett fans.
My captcha was “MUST”
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Nah, that’s too tinny! Tinny tinny tinny!
Sausage! There’s a good woddy sort of word!
Caribou GOONE!
Intercourse! Good and woddy!
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Preemptive fear due
To visions of future times
With post in wrong place
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Now I see your point,
perhaps that fear was well placed.
Precognition, hm?
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Chris Cornell, you say?
Stop it with these haikus,
need more Soundgarden.
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The Endless Bear who
has no beginning nor end
is known as Horace
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Horace’s minion
in a Forest of Monsters
he roams: Angelbear!
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I never was good
At creating poetry
This remains the case.
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I don’t get english sylabes so I suck at this game.
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That’s my case, too, but the game marks the number of syllables.
It’s pretty easy, really.
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Oh my effing god
How much time did I just waste?
Damn your arse, Kieron!
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I had a sandwich
and some oranges for lunch
they were very sweet
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Surely Chris Cornell
Rockstars enjoy haikus too
Fuck Audioslave
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this is not haiku
it’s what English speakers think
haiku is. Derp derp!
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Moras are fine for
Japanese, but in English
syllables matter.
How many people
even know what moras are?
What do you think, hm?
Terms are definèd
(Wapanese nonwithstanding)
by speakers’ usage.
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Derp derp derp derp derp.
Herp derp derp herp derp derp derp.
Herp derp derp, herp derp.
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The price of war is
the sanity of our
poor forgotten sons
Apart from the fact there’s no obligation to make any sense, this is a pretty clever game. Don’t forget to give it a stars rating on Kongregate, people.
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The world need more Cthulhu-themed haikus! Please, share them here!
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Frozen ancient realm
Ageless horrors deep within
Mountains of madness
and
It is not death for
That which can eternal lie
Please remain quiet
and now for a song
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Also
Cthulhu has three
Syllables which may seem clear
But I had to check
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Gibbous and eldritch.
Lovecraft only knew two words:
gibbous And eldritch
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@chris: thanks for the song link, ’twas good :)
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Cthulhu haikus?
Only one thing to be said:
Cthulhu ftagn!
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What worth my degree
bestowed by alma mater
Miskatonic U?
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‘Tis not Cartesian
the Deep and Old One’s system
of coordinates
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What is that I hear?
A thousand haiku purists
In apoplexy
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Actually, I wrote this half an eternity ago. It’s not a haiku, but it IS a cthulhu-themed Limerick. The Poetry -> Horror -> Limerick category was woefully empty at time being, so I thought I should probably fix that:
http://bringa.deviantart.com/gallery/#/ddo6u8
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Kieron, Alec, John,
Quinns and Jim bring us much joy.
May they have the same.
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Sniff.
KG
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Quinns requires Iron
Kieron sometimes writes good puns
But fails each Sunday.
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More than one haiku
is also written “haiku”
just like “sheep” or “moose.”
In other words, there
is no such word as “haikus.”
That said, a cool game!
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I just don’t know how
To make a good haiku
So I’ll stop here now.
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Apparently not
That one was five-six-five
Oh wait this is too…
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This Autumn I have
Too many games to be played
Possibly next year
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My offering:
monkey wearing hat
that fedora looks real nice
trade for banana
you’re welcome.
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why would i squash you
without taking all your loot
that makes no sense, man
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Is this the game here?
Why link Kongregate?
We are playing now.
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Hydrocephalic.
Hydrocephalic, I say!
Hydrocephalic!
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Water on the brain
Phantoon’s condition is grave
Hence his lame haiku
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brass told me not to
i will never listen to
electric old men
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“Ascending”:
60 70
80 90 100
115
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American?
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Votre article m’a donné beaucoup de reflexions. Allez-vous faire des folies sur une paire de bottes ugg cette saison ? Ces bottes sont très belles.
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Haiku based gaming?
It will never catch on, fool!
Farmville rules PCs.
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Will Colt forty five
Work well on this occasion
As it always has?
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Strange Japanese
I rarely understand them
It’s their haiku, see?
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