COVER ART THE CAT AND THE COUP SERIES

And politicians were talking about being aggressive with Iran (and still are). Video game history is replete with war-themed games that were released at a time when the United States were themselves at war (in Iraq and Afghanistan). ► Back in 2007, I wanted to make a war-themed game that wasn’t like the others. How did you end up working on The Cat and the Coup? Was working on an interactive project something you always wanted to do, or a more recent subject of interest? Even though it lasts no more than ten minutes or so, The Cat and the Coup remains both a unique and historically enlightening experience that sets a precedent in the seamless fusion of education and entertainment.īy the way, if you’re interested in a behind-the-scenes look into the game, do check out the following interview. Sure, the experimentation is not without its flaws: the collision detection is a bit murky, the visuals though very inventive are a bit uneven and the closing song is a curious pick but this shouldn’t refrain you from putting your hands on the game. Playing and learning thus become closely intertwined. It’s as if the player, both an active agent and helpless witness, assumed the role of History itself. Though you do take symbolic action, it cannot achieve anything more than letting events take their own course. What makes the game a breakthrough as a genuine documentary game is the fact that the player, while engaged in actual puzzle-solving, is not capable of influencing the course of history. Every time a riddle is solved, the haunting story unfolds and leads the Prime Minister closer to his inevitable downfall.

Progress is made by solving simple puzzles that often involve knocking stuff down and messing with the room’s balance through feline meddling.

COVER ART THE CAT AND THE COUP SERIES

The game puts you in control of an imaginary, innocent-looking black cat running along Mosaddegh in a series of Persian-inspired tableaux with surreal twists, which all represent specific stages in the man’s later life. If you’d like to learn more and even feel more about this event, you should definitely give a try to a documentary game titled The Cat and the Coup, the brainchild of two creators from the Game Innovation Lab of the University of South California, a division dedicated to experimental game design from which Jenova Chen (of Journey fame) also graduated. It was the first move of its type during the Cold War, but sadly far from the last. The bloody coup, nicknamed “Operation Ajax” by the CIA, achieved its goal – Mosaddegh was deposed then held under house arrest until his death, and the pro-Western monarch assumed autocratic powers. So the British government had the MI6 team up with American intelligence in a bid to secretly overthrow Mosaddegh. The latter didn’t please the United Kingdom. His administration’s main policies were the introduction of social security, the enactment of land reforms, and a bold move to nationalize the British-owned Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. He writes, “What makes The Cat and the Coup exemplary from a historiographical perspective is its striking adherence to, and departures from, the historical record.' The game is noted for 'using factually grounded sources such as The New York Times headlines,” while also positioning players in the imaginary role of Mossadegh's cat, whose inability to control the course of history serves as 'a metaphor for the uncertainty of historical outcomes.In the early 1950s, a progressive political leader named Mohammad Mosaddegh was democratically elected Prime Minister of Iran. Anderson in his book Technologies of History: Film, Television and the Eccentricity of the Past (Dartmouth 2011), which features an image from the game on its cover. The Cat and the Coup is considered an example of 'eccentric history' by Steve F.

Over the course of its development, it received multiple awards, including IndieCade's documentary game award it was a finalist for the Nuovo award at the Independent Games Festival and Runner Up for the Knight News Game award at Games for Change. The Cat and the Coup was developed over a three-year period and was funded in part by The Advancing Scholarship for the Humanities and Social Sciences, and the Game Innovation Lab at the University of Southern California. The opening puzzle Development and release

Cover art the cat and the coup