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The Cat the and the Coup was created by Peter Brinson and Kurosh ValaNejad and funded by The Advancing Scholarship for the Humanities and Social Sciences as well as the Game Innovation Lab at the University of Southern California. This “documentary game” won an award at IndieCade2010 and has been selected as a finalist in the 2011 Independent Games Festival. The goal of the game was to explore a part of world history that is well documented, but rarely discussed.

In the summer of 1953, the American government engineered a coup to take down Dr. Mohammed Mossadegh and changed the balance of power in Iran. In the game, you play as his cat and you guide Mossadegh through the past to explore significant events that were all put into place to remove him. The gameplay as well as all the visuals act as clever metaphors to explain the rise and fall of the Prime Minister. Traditional Iranian art mixed with cut and paste metaphoric symbols representing different countries, ideas and individuals act as a backdrop to this somber, documentary game.

Funders:

The Advancing Scholarship for the Humanities and Social Sciences, Game Innovation Lab at the University of Southern California