An
Animal Farm website is now
online, revealing plans for a game based on George Orwell's classic novella
authorized by the author's estate. The book is an allegory for Stalin's
communist Soviet Union played out through the actions of a group of barnyard
animals. The game will take that and form it into an adventure/tycoon game
that's expected for PC and possibly other platforms, with a release date TBD.
This
press release has the details:
The Animal Farm game will be an
adventure-tycoon, placing the player in the Manor Farm as one of the animals
just before the revolution, and will follow their journey through the ups and
downs of Animalism. The gameplay will combine story choices and the running of
the farm into a consistent narrative, giving players a chance to experience the
consequences of their decisions first hand.
When George Orwell’s seminal novel Animal Farm was first published in 1945, it
was seen as a critique of Soviet Russia. But as an allegory of absolute power
and totalitarian authority, both a needle-sharp satire and a terrible warning,
it has proved to have timeless and universal significance. ‘Power corrupts;
absolute power corrupts absolutely’, one of the many lessons in Animal Farm, is
as relevant today as it was at the end of the Second World War. Orwell posed the
reader many questions about power and the corrosive misuse of language. This is
a chance to plant the players at the heart of these questions, luring them
towards utopia or dictatorship.
Fully authorised by the estate of George Orwell, Animal Farm is created by an
independent team formed specifically to deliver Orwell’s vision in an
interactive format. The multi award-winning team includes Imre Jele (founder of
Bossa Studios), Andy Payne (founder of Just Flight and AppyNation and ex
Mastertronic), Georg Backer (A Brave Plan, Fable series), Jessica Curry
(Everybody's Gone to the Rapture, Dear Esther), Kate Saxon (Mafia III, Alien:
Isolation, Witcher 3) and other exceptional creative and technical
talent.