George Orwell’s Animal Farm is a political adventure game out today for mobile
After an earlier announcement back in August, George Orwell’s Animal Farm is out now on mobile devices as well as PC platforms, just over 75 years after the original novel’s publication.
Much like the novel it’s based on, Animal Farm is heavily inspired by the political atmosphere of the contemporary day. It’s narrative-focused and choice-based in design, where you’re at the centre of an allegorical revolution. Using cunning strategies, you have to choose which of the animals’ wishes you want to follow, who to ignore, and influence critical events which define the fate of the farm.
While the original novel’s inspirations stemmed a lot from Stalinism and the Russian Revolution of 1917, this modern reinterpretation uses themes and ideas from our own contemporary society.
“I have long wanted to explore how, through video gaming, we could design an experience which immerses the player in Orwell’s vision,” said Imre Jele, the project’s founder. “As the project has come to fruition in 2020 it has felt increasingly vital to bring Orwell’s study of inequity, power and control to a new audience. As I watch world events unfold - Brexit, Trump, Putin, Orban, Erdogan - and see numerous leaders use tactics from the populist, nationalist playbook: it sometimes feels like Animal Farm is not fiction, but reality.”
The game is narrated by Abubakar Salim, who played Bayek in Assassin’s Creed Origins, with his performance directed by Kate Saxon who worked on Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture, Alien: Isolation and several Witcher games. The two also collaborated last year on The Bradwell Conspiracy.
You can download George Orwell’s Animal Farm from the iOS App Store or Google Play for Android. It’s a premium title which costs $9.99.
If you enjoy narrative-focused games you might want to have a look at our list where we've named some of the best ones on mobile.