Do humans dream of political sheep?

No. It’s not Animal Farm. It does have farm animals. It does involve showing fealty to The Farmer at the expense of your colleagues. It does center on influencing the herd’s opinion on quality-of-life concerns.

So, it’s kind of Animal Farm.

Nearly five years ago, after somewhat tumultuous political events to start off a new year, I pitched to the family that we create a game about today’s political climate. I thought it would be fun and funny. It wasn’t. It wasn’t either of those things. It wasn’t even interesting.

So after about two years of development and a handful of prototypes spanning different genres we enjoyed riffing on, we just quit.

We quit for like a year. Maybe longer. A full year of just ignoring this creative elephant in the room. This albatross of playful ambition. Making the game of real-life politics entertaining without the carrot of real-life power was the issue. I didn’t even like watching politics. Talking politics. It was a bear.

But, those costs sure were sunk huh? Like surely, there is a way to pay homage to something we all love? To contribute? And that political theme, it wasn’t so bad? We already thought out so much of it.

May 2025. There we were. Giddy again. Laughing again. A great new hook. A great new in. And yet, there was still one problem: how can you make politics fun? As soon as you mention a specific talking point, issue, side, logo, brand, color…that bubble doesn’t just deflate and wrinkle and sag, it pops. Pops in a bad way. Pops in people walking away and turning their nose and not being interested.

After a late night of crying and bellyaching that our great idea would never be given a real chance, that we had wasted years going in this direction, that we need to find a new theme, a new axe to grind, we decided to do some research. In our research, we found a word: metaphor. That took us down a whole rabbit hole of other wonderful concepts such as allegory and idioms and satire and 100-flash-cards-for-11th-grade-AP-Literature. And then it hit us. We can talk politics without talking politics. Keep all of the fun of being political without being political. Let’s just make them animals? No one can get mad at an animal. Farm animals to be specific. Something quaint and old-fashioned.

Zootopia did it. You couldn’t do half of that commentary with people! Old 1920s cartoons did it. Chicken Little or Three Little Pigs. Steam Boat Willy surely must have had some hot takes. And hey, that’s a great style. You never see that in board games. And of course, we have to keep it black and white.

It wasn’t until we started describing the game to an outsider that we encountered this phrase. It was the first time, but it wouldn’t be the last. “Oh, so it’s just Animal Farm?”. I might hate every word picked there, and it without fail always is uttered in that exact order, in that exact way. The drawn-out “oh” to dismiss any excitement of originality. The forceful “just” to pivot hard from listening to judging. That slight uplifting tone for “Animal Farm”. The reverence. The preference. Like George Orwell started the Neolithic Revolution with nothing but pen and paper.

But yes. We were obviously inspired by Animal Farm, just not on purpose. That story is truly great, wonderfully told, and challenging to forget. It was never our intention, but somehow we have inevitably tapped into the pop culture subconscious mapping of authoritarianism and the agrarian lifestyle. What can I say? Pigs and a duplicitous-lack-of-integrity-to-elevate-your-status-by-instilling-a-new-paradigm-of-control-and-fear just go together. It just feels right.

Now, to alleviate any incoming disappointment and correctly calibrate your expectations for the game ahead, this is not Animal Farm. You’re not playing out a revolution. You won’t be choosing the agenda. You won’t be throwing snowballs. If Animal Farm is about the descent into tyranny, The Party Line is about maintaining it. Our game is about all of the infighting and fear and mental gymnastics to keep the fragility of your Great Leader’s ego, and by extent, their control, in tact.

But sure, compare it to Animal Farm. As long as you’re reading it…can’t stop the signal and all that.

Thanks,

Alexander Wilkins