A New, Particularly Orwellian Game is Coming Soon

In the age of the more-advanced information superhighway that is the modern Internet, I’m well aware that content and advertisements are being served to me based on my specific interests. That remains the case even if I don’t consciously express those interests online. For example, for the first time since my freshman year of high school, I recently purchased and listened to the Audible version of George Orwell’s 1945 “fairy story” known as Animal Farm.

Now, a week or so after finishing that particular audiobook, I find myself having stumbled across the news upon which I wish to report today. This whole scenario really cements the idea in my mind that Big Brother is, in fact, always watching. At any rate, it’s recently come to light that game developer Nerial is collaborating with publisher The Dairymen to bring the world an official adventure game based upon Orwell’s aforementioned “fairy story.”

This title, known simply as Orwell’s Animal Farm, is considered “official” because its developers are also working closely with George Orwell’s estate to ensure that they can bring the world described in the book to life as accurately and as skillfully as possible. To that end, Michael Cripe of The Escapist reports that Orwell’s Animal Farm “aims to use evocative 1930s painterly graphics to put the player at the center of an allegorical revolution and enables them to experience firsthand the corrupting nature of power.”

I thoroughly recommend adding Animal Farm to your reading list. I consider it quite a memorable tale, to say the least. For those of you who may not be aware of the events described within the book, however, allow me to provide a quick “elevator pitch” of sorts to get you up to speed before the game adaptation releases. Of course, I’ll avoid spoilers in order to avoid potentially spoiling both the book and the game.

Within the world of Animal Farm, a group of otherwise unremarkable farm animals, who have the ability to communicate among themselves, essentially decide that they’ve had enough of their lives of servitude to the human farmer Mr. Jones. The animals are inspired to rebel by a rousing speech from an old boar named Major. When Major dies shortly thereafter, two of his fellow pigs, Snowball and Napoleon, organize the rest of the animals into a force fit to overthrow Farmer Jones. They successfully and violently do so. They then rename the property from “Manor Farm” to “Animal Farm.”

That’s essentially all I can say in the interest of avoiding spoilers, except for the fact that the newly-christened Animal Farm does not exactly remain a utopia for animal-kind. It is this rebellion and the events that take place as a result of it which form the plot and gameplay of Orwell’s Animal Farm. In a press release about the title, Nerial and The Dairymen stated that players will be able to choose “which of the animals’ wishes they follow, and who is ignored or sidelined.”

From what little is currently known about this title, I think it definitely has the potential to make for an interesting game. I personally wasn’t expecting any games to be made about George Orwell’s works, but I’ve been pleasantly surprised on that front before. If you’re interested in learning more about the upcoming playable adaptation of Animal Farm, you can check out the game’s trailer below. Orwell’s Animal Farm will reportedly launch on PC and mobile devices sometime this fall.