Ministry of Truth: 1984

Based on George Orwell’s always relevant novel, “1984,” Ministry of Truth: 1984 puts you in the boots of a new worker in the Behavioral Modeling Department. You’re given notes describing situations, and your job is to determine the “good” reaction to them. If you’re familiar with Orwell’s work, the game makes it abundantly clear that your choices are meant to align with the totalitarian party’s corrupt desire for control. You are graded on your loyalty, ambition, empathy, and self-awareness, each with a status bar to track how well you are doing. Don’t become too empathetic or self-aware, or you may learn what happened to the last guy.

Balancing Morality and Survival

To give an example, the first situation card you receive states:

YOUR COLLEAGUE JOHN SMILED STRANGELY DURING THIS MORNING’S TWO-MINUTE HATE SPEECH. PERHAPS YOU SHOULD TELL HIM OFF?

In this instance, you are given four cards: Suspicion, Control, Friendship, and Indifference, from which you are required to choose two. I think John is clearly hiding something that Big Brother needs to know about. I should take charge and report him to the Thought Police. I chose Suspicion and Control and was praised for that decision. +10 Loyalty, +5 Ambition, -10 Empathy, and -5 Self-Awareness.

Storytelling and Political Commentary

As the story progresses, occasional new characters appear, giving you more puzzles, mini-games, and situations to make you question your choices. The demo has a limited number of puzzles and mini-games, but the full release will contain more.

I appreciate the story’s absurdity and openly political messaging. The writers have done a fantastic job at mimicking George Orwell’s unsubtle messaging. Like the source material, they make no attempt to hide the politically loaded themes about totalitarianism and surveillance that made 1984 so powerful.

The tension of balancing the four attributes—loyalty, ambition, empathy, and self-awareness—becomes more difficult as the game progresses. The system cleverly mirrors the mental gymnastics performed by Winston Smith in the novel. Personally, I find it challenging to play through RPGs making choices that don’t align with my own beliefs, even when I’m doing it for narrative purposes. This game effectively pressured me with each decision; not only was I forced to choose between morally questionable options, but determining which responses would align best with Oceania’s interests was genuinely difficult.

It has been over 75 years since “1984” by George Orwell was published. Its themes of surveillance, propaganda, and thought control remain relevant today. Ministry of Truth: 1984 cleverly shifts these concepts into an interactive experience, allowing players to experience the psychological manipulation Orwell warned us about. In our current era of social media and data collection, Ministry of Truth: 1984 serves as both a fun and engaging game and a cautionary tale, like the work that inspired it.

The game plays similarly to “Papers, Please,” which also explores authoritarianism through bureaucratic gameplay. Ministry of Truth: 1984 seems to focus more on the psychological aspects by putting you into the shoes of one of the cogs that keeps the totalitarianism running, rather than just putting you in control.

Developers

This game is being developed by a small indie studio in Ukraine called “False Memory Dept.,” which adds an additional layer of significance. Creating a game revolving around totalitarianism and resistance while their country fights for its sovereignty gives Ministry of Truth: 1984 more authenticity that Western developers may struggle to fully capture. The studio’s name itself—’False Memory Dept.‘—shows their understanding of how historical narratives can be manipulated by those in power.”

Release Information

Ministry of Truth: 1984 was chosen as one of the top projects during the Ctrl+Alt+Disinfo Game Jam.

The game is currently slated to release in Q3 2025, but there’s a short demo available on Steam. You can join their community Discord here, and play the demo or wishlist the game here.