A long time ago, in 1945, there was a book that had just released, which became popular due to its satirical take on politics and its use of the animal world to create an allegory of certain ruling systems used throughout the world. That novel was George Orwell's Animal Farm, which has since become a staple piece of literature in many classrooms. Now, 75 years later, that book is getting a video game based on it. Orwell's Animal Farm is a story-based game developed by Nerial, known for their prior work on the Reigns series, where you'll be able to interact with the world from the novel by choosing how to rule your animal-based republic.

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The game is set for a release later this year sometime in the fall, to celebrate its source material's 75th anniversary, and will be available on mobile devices and Steam.

 

[Something whatever]

lol...youngins today are not ready for this

 

[brunocar]

"Great"... the original anti-extreme left work will get adapted at a time where everything has to pander to the extreme left. Wonder how that will play out.

uh... orwell was a socialist.

 

[FAST6191]

Never studied Animal Farm, myself, in high school; I believe we covered Lord of the Flies instead.
As a result, I have only the vaguest understanding of what Barnyard is about, whereas even now I remember most of Duke of the Buzzers.

Cartoon version of it is not bad and only takes an hour (or half if you can care for double speed)

 

[chrisrlink]

what was the company behind that horrid Postal 3 Game (think it was a Russian dev company) if their behind it i swear this is the new face of Political misinformation campaign targeting america

 

[ChaosEternal]

Just because the alt right sees communists everywhere doesn't mean that they still exist, let alone hold any power. Even Russia is a far stretch from the Soviet Union.

Communists absolutely still exist. They just don't currently have any serious political power in pretty much any country. If you know where to look, you can find Tankies, Leninists, Maoists, the whole shebang.

 

[emigre]

This book is more like an anti-socialism propaganda.

Orwell is pretty regarded as a socialist. He was at the least a leftist and used to write for the Tribune which is democratic socialist publication here in Blighty. AF is anything anti-totalitarian and anti-communist.

People here tend to have an overly simplistic view of politics. It's very easy to be left-wing and be anti-communist. A lot of the traditional left-wing parties in Europe are that. In the British Labour party, you had Micahel Foot who was outright socialist but was highly critical of the Soviet Union. Btw, Foot was accused of being a paid Soviet informant but successfully sued that is was bollocks.

Anyhows, great book. Will be interested in how this is adapted to a vidya gaem.

 

[TheCasualties]

I'm also guessing it'll be a Point & Click. Might be good anyways.

I don't know where else I can share that STALKER is based on the Tarkovsky film Stalker

Check out Roadside Picnic, written by the Strugatsky Bros. It inspired the Stalker film which was also written by them. If you like the games' story/world you'll probably love the book. They have several very good books.

 

[SuzieJoeBob]

This book is more like an anti-socialism propaganda.

Isn't that a good thing?

 

[HarveyHouston]

Sadly, I don't think I read Animal Farm. I've wanted to read George Orwell books, but I didn't get the chance. Orwell was definitely a visionary in what he wrote; his 1984 book has pretty much come true (although it didn't literally start in 1984 - I propose the early 2000s as the starting point). I hope this game does Animal Farm justice, by being as faithful to the book as possible.

 

[DarkCoffe64]

I would make a joke that it's gonna be a battle royale game with animal chars since that's the rage nowadays



but then I remember super animal royale already exists

 

[xdarkx]

Have read Animal Farm since high school so I don't remember what's it about. Had to look up a summary of it.


Now that I "remember" what it's about, I don't think this would be any good as a game. Should forever stay as a novel instead.

 

[Rail Fighter]

Nice pig. I ate one at today's lunch.

 

[leon315]

Isn't that a good thing?

If there's someone tells you that ur existence is futil, ur life is a waste of oxygen, and probably u should jump from empire state building, would you do as he told so?

Guess no, same goes to this Book which is full of craps anti socialism propaganda, will you believe that?

 

[SuzieJoeBob]

If there's someone tells you that ur existence is futil, ur life is a waste of oxygen, and probably u should jump from empire state building, would you do as he told so?

Guess no, same goes to this Book which is full of craps anti socialism propaganda, will you believe that?

On Topic: I find it interesting that someone is going to turn Animal Farm into what seems to be a Visual Novel or Point-and-Click adventure, but how will they go about the alternate timelines and paths without deviating too much from what the original narrative's message was?

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Off Topic:
Let me guess; you believe that communism only happens when socialism is practiced incorrectly? Socialism is counterintuitive to any progress as a society due to artificial limitations on inventing, innovation, and all-around personal achievement.


So you managed to accomplish something that no one else has done before and want to be recognized for it? Everyone will recognize you, but as selfish and demand that you share with everyone else because it places a handicap on everyone else in comparison. You worked 20% harder and longer than everyone else at the factory? Well, no one told you to do that, so don't expect to be compensated for it.

The concept of socialism is just that: a concept. Everyone reaping the benefits equally, regardless of involvement, leads to laziness and entitlement that ultimately leads to someone or some people having to take charge and force everyone to pitch in in some form, leading either to capitalism or communism.

You enjoy having nice things, right? That computer that you have, the tv shows you like, and even the shirts you are wearing only exist because someone made a company to create those things, and companies cannot exist in a socialist environment because a company implies a hierarchy that is in contrast with the concept of true equality.

 

[leon315]

@SuzieJoeBob dude, have you really read the book?NNo need to guess, u clearly didn't.
Read the book 1st then we talk about it.

 

[orangy57]

witcher, bloodborne, bioshock, metro 2033, and many others
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Video_games_based_on_novels

they mean classic books, like you don't see anybody going out to make a Great Gatsby video game or an Of Mice and Men farming simulator

 

[FAST6191]

On Orwell. I got the impression he was an avowed fan of socialism of the era (a radically different concept to what some Americans like to brand socialism today, or more if you are looking at Scandinavia today and thinking that then you are wrong), however he went and actually saw the reality of the situation, realised human nature is what it is, that power structures ultimately reflect that and wrote a semi allegorical (even if he apparently hated the term being applied to it... and if I was clever at this point I would do a "if it looks like a pig" remark) with a bit of future prediction (that was not so accurate) account of the Russian/USSR experiment. In doing so made what now might be considered a scathing critique of the matter even if he still believed (and for the rest of his, rather unhealthy, life still aimed to further a few things).
If we are doing an Orwell reading list then I would suggest a couple of his rather short thoughts on writing itself -- whatever you may make of the man and his politics if you aspire to write, critique writing or otherwise do anything marginally related to it then this stuff is very much on point then and to this day
http://www.openculture.com/2016/05/george-orwells-six-rules-for-writing-clear-and-tight-prose.html
https://www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-foundation/orwell/essays-and-other-works/why-i-write/

they mean classic books, like you don't see anybody going out to make a Great Gatsby video game or an Of Mice and Men farming simulator

Sometimes you do.
Wizard of Oz got a few games. The DS Beyond the Yellow Brick road game being something to note.
If 1984 is classic literature nowadays then Winnie-the-Pooh surely also counts. Ditto various efforts from Dr. Seuss.
I have lost count of how many efforts in doing/takes on Alice in Wonderland we have seen.
Ditto Dracula, even more so if Castlevania counts.
Dante's Inferno was a thing back on the PSP and PS360.
Sherlock Holmes and all the other crime solving games? There are quite a few of them.
James Bond might be an exception in some ways (the films tending to be what people know today) but the novels started in the 50s and it was hardly the earliest of the spy genre to make it big. That said several of the games depart from the films and look somewhat at the books.
Do we count Tom and Jerry here? Though I suppose they were cartoons from the outset.
While many were more related to various films being remade (see things like Planet of the Apes, Tarzan, Treasure Planet, The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, and the like) they did often draw more from earlier material than later/then current, never mind what we make of Lord of the Rings or the efforts for Disney films (Cinderella saw one in 2005, don't know if that was a "Disney vault" year and depending upon who you speak to then Cinderella is probably an ancient story -- 2000 years for some distinctly similar ones). Not to mention while I doubt 1984 the book would have been forgotten too soon I am not going to discount the film in helping it stay as relevant as it has.
While cartoons is a thing above do films count in general? Kong - The 8th Wonder of the World was a 2005 effort from Ubisoft even if Peter Jackson did make a Kong film that year.
Japan plunders their historical stories all the time for plots for games.
While most games here were known more for hideous graphics and boxart then several efforts in the PS2 era were based around fairy tales (and it was not that long before that the brothers grimm compiled a bunch of them, never mind saw the earlier translations to English).
That said stick with things closer to what we normally deal with in handhelds and lesser considered consoles and it gets stranger still. A Sound of Thunder (a 1950s sci fi short from Ray Bradbury) saw a GBA version for instance.

Now were any of these particularly good? Most were not, even by the standards of the time and consoles in question.
Were any of the games in question any kind of exploration of the work suitable to how watching a film might allow you to discuss the work in general (I will stand by the 1984 cartoon I linked earlier -- watch that and you can debate themes and notions brought up in the book quite happily)? Very rarely.
Did any of the games particularly benefit from being set in that universe? That would be rarer still... and that might also be my next series of hacks -- strip out any recognisable proper nouns or obvious settings from various games and see if they resonate accordingly, bonus is many are so old and forgotten at this point that it should not be too hard (you could probably even find some kids that never played Goldeneye on the N64). Maybe even come the other way and find non gaming types that are familiar with the literature and see if they connect any dots or themes.

Mind you I am now curious to see the game equivalents of pride and prejudice and zombies. Sadly at this point I think most of what games have to say here is instead Assassin's Creed and Dynasty Warriors, maybe Young Thor on the PSP.
A few games have a basically [insert Shakespeare play] but in space/modern day/historical cool period with talking animals/toys/items/dragons/future tech type setup to, as do a lot of things. That however is probably getting into there are only 7/8 basic stories or plots https://issabacsa.com/8-basic-stories/ territory.

 

[SuzieJoeBob]

@SuzieJoeBob dude, have you really read the book?NNo need to guess, u clearly didn't.
Read the book 1st then we talk about it.

I have read the book, as well as any other person that has gone through grade school, and I'm pretty sure that the Empire State Building was not in George Orwell's book. When it comes to intelligence, "some are more equal than others," and that definitely isn't you.

Once you start to provide responses that contain more than 12-year-old XBOX Live insults, then maybe I'll respond to you again. Until then, make sure to pay more attention to the schooling that us taxpayers are forced to pay for lost causes such as yourself.

Oh great, another Farmville clone


JUST KIDDING


I have a vision of a tycoon style game where you play as one of the ruling pigs and need to gather as much wealth/food in a limited amount of turns, by strategically running your farm into the ground: if you sell the horse to the knackers too soon, you might miss on a round of harvest due to a limited work force. And so on.

That would make for a very interesting tycoon game with a choice driven story, especially if there was a timeline system implemented akin to the Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together remake for the PSP. It would be cool to be able to view the multiple branching story arcs and compare both the minor and major story changes that happened to occur at the same moment in each timeline.

 

[StrayGuitarist]

Huh. I hope there's multiple paths you can take. If that's the case, this is definitely something that interests me, even though I've admittedly never read or even heard of the book...

 

[Foxi4]

To dispel some confusion, Orwell was a Democratic Socialist, which is a stance he acquired during the Spanish Civil War. He admired the anarcho-syndicalist communities in Anarchist Catalonia. He opposed Stalinism, as seen in the U.S.S.R, so if anything, his critique is anti-totalitarian first and foremost. What Orwell didn't understand, since those concepts were fairly new and untested at the time, is the fact that communism is the ultimate conclusion of socialism as in order to enforce wide-spread and centralised resource management one must necessarily also deploy the element of force, as not everyone is going to enthusiastically give what is rightfully theirs for the "greater good". This is why every attempt at implementing wide-spread socialist economies had its ultimate conclusion in the establishment of a totalitarian state - it happened in the U.S.S.R, it happened in China, it happened in Cuba and countless other states. Now, the argument that "those weren't real socialism" is fairly common and it's been argued to death, so I won't weigh in on that, but in the context of Orwell's work you can treat it as a matter of moderation. Orwell supported socialism up to a point, and that point was freedom to self-determine, freedom to choose and freedom to speak. I think we can all get behind those three basic principles.