Political activism has now made its way into the tech world, thanks to a new game called CorbynRun.
The game follows the Labour leader as he runs along the street, dodging his Tory opponents and unleashing his manifesto on the country.
The political allegiance of those who developed the game is clear: a Tory bus has “#LIES” emblazoned on the side, Boris Johnson turns up on a zipwire throwing British flags at Corbyn and the ghost of Thatcher even makes an appearance.
The producer of CorbynRun, James Moulding, said: “Our team wanted to make a fun and creative way of promoting the Labour Party’s message at this crucial election, in a simple and accessible way – what better way than through a game?”
The game itself is aimed at 18-34-year-olds, an age group that polls suggest is more supportive of Labour than the general population.
The team that created the game is a diverse one, made up of nine Labour party supporters, activists, game designers and developers.
Moulding said: “Ours is an international team, including British, Spanish, and Italian members, who despite living in the UK and working in the games industry for several years are unable to vote – but wanted to make an input into the election of a Labour government.”
Even though people have been particularly captivated by humorous features like Johnson on a zipwire, Moulding said: “My favourite feature is the ability to gather people power and launch Labour manifesto pledges.
“It helps to not only promote Labour’s popular policies in this election, but more importantly perhaps, it gets across the idea of building the movement, and the co-operation and collective action that it entails.
“At its core, this is a game about building a movement, about coming together, realising our collective power in the face of the Tory government and forging a tidal wave of optimism for an alternative to austerity.
“Our aim is to show how another Britain is possible when we work together for it.”
Showing just how fast-moving the tech industry is, the idea for the game was dreamed up in April and the team began working on it just three weeks ago.
There has been a huge response to the game – even from the Labour party itself. Shadow chancellor John McDonnell said of it: “Great initiative from Labour supporters. The Tories may own the media but it’s the people whose creativity will win.”
You can play the game here, or download it on Apple or Android.
