They want to traumatize another generation with the Groke: Norwegians are creating a game based on the Moomins
Martyna Engeset-Pograniczna
14.06.2025 09:00
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Norwegian game developers from Hyper Games already have some experience with the Moomins.
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An extraordinary thing is happening. For the first time in history, Moomintroll wakes up prematurely from his winter sleep. The sea is still sleeping under the ice. The snow-covered Moominhouse looks very lonely. Mama doesn't wake up; she dreams curled up in an indifferent ball. How will poor Moomintroll manage? We know this story from Tove Jansson's Moominland Midwinter. Soon, Norwegians will release a computer game based on it.
In the book version, the Moomins contain a lot of melancholy and sadness. The world, so beautiful on joyful summer days, sometimes seems so fragile. Especially when winter comes... The frightened Moomintroll, seeing the neighborhood in its snowy attire for the first time, reacts to this unfamiliar sight with a solid dose of fear: "He looked at the jasmine bush, which was a chaotic tangle of bare branches, and thought in horror: It died, the whole world died while I was sleeping. This world belongs to someone else, someone I don't know. Maybe to the Groke. And it wasn't made for Moomins to live in."
In Tove Jansson's books – equally suitable for children and for childlike souls in adult bodies – we sometimes find a more or less distant echo of the grim circumstances in which this series began. The author recalled the birth of the Moomin stories: "It was the winter of 1939, wartime. Work stood still; one felt that any attempt to create an image of reality was completely unnecessary."
The abyss and evening gloom
Subsequent pop-cultural adaptations, such as the 1990s series or Moomin mugs and other overly sweet gadgets, blur the memory of the darker, more serious, and deeper tone present in this universe. Will it be similar with the game currently produced by the Norwegian company Hyper Games? We'll find out after its release next year. Now let's compare the recently published trailer for Moomintroll: Winter's Warmth with another fragment from Moominland Midwinter. Indeed, the game's world is dark, but the sky is illuminated by the beautiful northern lights (also present in the book), and the atmosphere is set by calming music. And besides, that hopeful title... Winter's Warmth...
In Jansson's version, however:
"The whole world is sleeping its winter sleep," thought Moomintroll. "Only I woke up and can't fall asleep again. Only I will wander and wander through all the days and weeks until I become a snowdrift that no one will know about." The forest opened up before him, and below, Moomintroll saw a new valley. On its other side stretched the Lonely Mountains. They wandered wave after wave to the south and had never looked so lonely. Only now did Moomintroll begin to feel truly cold. Evening gloom crept out of the abyss and slowly climbed the frozen mountain ridges, where snow glistened on black rocks like exposed teeth, where there was only white and black and emptiness as far as the eye could see."
It might seem that in the game, darkness and underlying despair fade away. Nevertheless, the head of Hyper Games declares to NRK: "The book is not afraid to address topics such as loneliness, death, and isolation, and the game will not shy away from them either." He adds that games should evoke emotions and that he is not afraid that players might feel sad or scared. He jokes that the Groke has already traumatized several generations of Scandinavians and that Hyper Games aims to give this trauma further life.
Norwegian game developers from this company already have some experience with the Moomins. Last year, they released a game titled Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley. It involves exploring a narrative-driven world, solving puzzles, and searching for items—missing pieces of a puzzle. Next year's game based on Moominland Midwinter is supposed to be similar.
Winter is coming, one might say. The Norwegian creation should appeal to those who share a Moomin sentiment!
Sources: Book "Moominland Midwinter", NRK, PC Gamer, YouTube
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