The Cat and The Coup is a 2011-made documentary puzzle game by Peter Brinson and Kurosh ValaNejad. The game follows the life of Prime Minister of Iran

Prime Minister of Iran

Prime Minister of Iran was a political post in Iran that had existed during several different periods of time starting with the Qajar era until its most recent revival from 1979 to 1989 following the Iranian Revolution.-Prime Ministers of Qajar era:In the Qajar era, prime ministers were known by...

, Mohammed Mossadegh, and his subsequent downfall through a CIA- and MI6-engineered coup during the 1950s. On June 15, 2011, the game was released on Valve Corporation

Valve Corporation

Valve Corporation is an American video game development and digital distribution company based in Bellevue, Washington, United States...

's digital distribution service, Steam.

Development and release

The Cat and the Coup was developed over a three-year period and was funded by the Game Innovation Lab at the University of Southern California

University of Southern California

The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...

. Over the course of its development, it received multiple awards, including IndieCade

Indiecade

Indiecade or IndieCade is an international juried festival of independent video games. IndieCade is known as "the video game industry's Sundance". At IndieCade independent video game developers are selected to screen and promote their work at the annual IndieCade festival and showcase events...

's documentary game award, the Nuovo award at the Independent Games Festival

Independent Games Festival

The Independent Games Festival is an annual festival at the Game Developers Conference, the largest annual gathering of the indie video game industry. It was founded in 1998 to assist and inspire innovation in video game development and to recognize the best independent video game developers...

 and the Finalist Award at Games for Change

Games for Change

Games for Change is a movement and community of practice dedicated to using digital games for social change. An individual game may also be referred to as a "game for change" if it is produced by this community or shares its ideals...

.