Animal Farm is Being Made into an "Adventure-Tycoon" Game

All video games are equal, but some video games are more equal than others.

By Matt Davidson

An independent team of game creators has formed to create a video game adapatation of George Orwell's 1945 novel Animal Farm.

Described on the game's website as an "adventure-tycoon" game, the adaptation will see players take on the role of one of the animals living on the Farm in the days leading up to and during the animal revolution, chronicling the "ups and downs of Animalism".

The "adventure" part of the game will focus on story choices, allowing the player to choose their path through the animal uprising; the "tycoon" portion will focus on the running of the farm, although the game's creators say that the two will form a "consistent narrative", with the players having to live through the consequences of their "tycoon" decisions whilst playing through the game.

George Orwell's Animal Farm.

Animal Farm, originally published in 1945, is widely considered one of the greatest works of modern fiction and frequently appears in "best of" lists. Written from the point of view of animals living on a farm, Orwell wrote the novel to reflect the rise of Stalinism in Russia, and was a thinly-veiled attack on the dangers Communism posed to the West, as well as an allegory of the dangers of absolute power and totalitarian authority. It's these themes that have led the creative team to come together for this one game only.

Team member Imre Jele (founder of Bossa Studios), told Polygon: "It's the right time for society as we're heading into an era uncomfortably similar to the universe described by George Orwell", stating that the team wants the player to be able to identify with both "the oppressor and the oppressed". In addition to Jele, the team includes Andy Payne (founder of Just Flight and AppyNation), Georg Backer (Fable), Jessica Curry (Everybody's Gone to the Rapture, Dear Esther), Kate Saxon (Mafia III, Alien: Isolation, Witcher 3) and others.

Notably, the game is fully authorised by the Orwell estate, who Jele says are totally invested in the game and "scrutinised our goals and and ideas extensively during this process, as they should."

There is currently no word on a release date, although the team has confirmed that the game will be coming to PC "and other platforms".

Matt Davidson is a freelance writer for IGN who had nightmares for three years after reading Animal Farm. Follow him on Twitter, if you like.

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