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Zygmunt Bauman is a Polish sociologist known for his concept of liquid modernity. This concept helps us to think about the universe of Animal Well in a symbolic way.
Bauman describes the contemporary world as fluid, uncertain and fragmented. The solid structures of the past (family, steady job, religion, stable ideologies) have given way to a constantly changing reality - a “liquid life” where people have to adapt all the time with no guarantee of stability.
In Animal Well, the player is in an environment with no clear explanations, no defined direction, no structured narrative - everything has to be discovered little by little, often by trial and error. This mirrors the kind of experience that Bauman says is typical of modern life: the subject is on their own, has to make do with the few clues they have, and can't rely on a system to guide them clearly.
As you dive into the labyrinthine corridors of Animal Well, the player is transported to a universe of silence, mystery and constant disorientation. Released as an independent work that mixes metroidvania with sensory minimalism, the game seems, at first glance, unrelated to theoretical discussions about society and modernity. However, a closer look reveals a profound harmony between the aesthetic and interactive experience proposed by Animal Well and the central ideas of Georg Simmel's sociology, especially those contained in his essay “The Metropolis and Mental Life”, published in 1903.
Simmel was one of the first sociologists to study the impact of accelerated urbanization on the psychic life of individuals. In his analysis, the modern city - full of noise, uneven rhythms and incessant stimuli - forces the subject to develop a “blasé attitude”, a form of emotional self-preservation in the face of the avalanche of daily impressions. This condition, according to Simmel, creates a contradiction: although individuals live surrounded by others, they are at the same time thrown into subjective solitude, marked by a growing indifference and a constant need to adapt.
It is precisely this paradox that Animal Well dramatizes, albeit through playful means. The game doesn't provide a clear map, dialogues or explicit objectives. Instead, the player is urged to decipher a world where every element can hide a mechanic or danger. This demand for attention to the smallest detail, for constant adaptation to an opaque and unclassifiable space, echoes the same sensory overload described by Simmel in relation to the metropolis. Here, the “animal pit” is symbolically a labyrinthine city, built not with avenues, but with secret passages and environmental enigmas.
The game's visual aesthetic reinforces this reading: although full of subtle colors and animations, Animal Well avoids the exaggerated spectacle and grandeur typical of action games. Its chromatic palette, muffled sounds and environments that oscillate between serene and hostile make up a landscape that seems indifferent to the player's presence - like the city that, according to Simmel, doesn't recognize the individual as a subject, but inserts them into an indifferent flow of events. The indifference of the game world, therefore, is not just a mechanical challenge: it is a symbolic representation of the modern experience, where the subject needs to construct meaning amid the impersonality of spaces.
Another central point of Simmel's theory is how money, technical objectivity and the rationalization of relationships reduce the qualitative value of the urban experience. Although Animal Well doesn't deal directly with economics or capitalism, its logic of interaction emphasizes the absence of monetary rewards, accumulation or linear progress - which can be interpreted as an implicit criticism of modern utilitarianism. Instead of quantifiable goals, the game offers subjective discoveries and moments of pure contemplation, such as activating a gear only to see a bridge appear in another corner of the map, far from the player's immediate gaze.
In this sense, Animal Well is a practical counterpoint to the instrumental model of modern life. It asks the player to slow down, observe, experiment and accept not knowing as a constitutive part of the experience. This attitude is in dialogue with Simmel's critique of the excessive rationalization of existence, which ignores the subjective and sensory elements of life.
Of course, Animal Well is not meant to be a literal illustration of sociological theory - and nor does it need to be. Its value lies precisely in being a work open to interpretation, whose silence and opacity force us to project meanings. Even so, by evoking sensations typical of metropolitan life - overload, alienation, isolation and wonder in the face of complexity - the game touches on fundamental issues of modernity and, without saying a word, invites the player to feel what Simmel tried to describe in his text: life as a constant balance between stimulation and defense, between connection and indifference, between discovery and strangeness.
Animal Well, therefore, is more than a game of exploration and puzzles: it is an underground metaphor for contemporary urban life, where, as in Simmel's metropolises, the subject wanders among shadows, trying to make sense of the world, even if that world insists on remaining silent.
