George Orwell’s Animal Farm is about to bring back a swathe of disturbing childhood memories when it takes video games on a new dark adventure this autumn.
Set to arrive on PC and mobile platforms later this year, Animal Farm is just in time to celebrate this hugely influential literary work was first published and entered the world as a subversively dark twist on the human condition. Now, a small group of indie devs are set to tell this tale in a whole new light to mark the occasion.
As you might expect, this new take on a classic farmyard tale immerses players in the midst of Orwell’s story. By choosing a side of the central animal conflict, gamers will influence the critical events that define the fate of the aforementioned farm. Through the experience, strategy is key and resource management paramount. The farm will need to be defended, one way or another and the animal population must be kept happy unless everything should turn sour. This new version of Animal farm might look quaint, with its 1930s style painterly graphics but the ducks are vicious.
The indie team behind this new interpretation consists of The Dairymen (Andy Payne founder of Just Flight, AppyNation and Imre Jele founder of Bossa Studios), and Nerial, the creators of the BAFTA-nominated Reigns series, who bring their unrivalled skills in streamlined and powerful storytelling to Animal Farm.
“Animal Farm is a literary masterpiece which uses deceptively simple language to accurately describe the downfall of communism from the dream of equality into totalitarian oppression.”, noted Imre Jele, the project’s Founder. “The fate of the farm was all too real for me growing up in totalitarian Hungary.”
As this allegory for more human machinations creeps forward, players will experience how power corrupts and why so many of us might consider Animal Farm a warning of what might soon be in the modern age. If you never read Animal Farm or were too young to catch Watership Down then take a moment to try out Animal Farm when it arrives later this year, just as dark as ever.