Fat Chicken has been deemed a Reverse Tower Defense game. That’s because you’re not trying to destroy the enemies going through your lines, you’re trying to keep them alive, and fatten them up as much as possible before they head to the slaughterhouse. Your guns are feed towers, water towers, antibiotic towers, and UFO defense towers, to name a few. The fatter your animals are when they enter the slaughterhouse at the end of the field, the more money you receive. As opposed to the Tower Defense genre, you might want to just barely touch your targets until the end. Since your animals lose weight as they cross the field, it is a bit of a waste to keep them well fed until the very end.
There are other strategies you’ll have to employ in later levels. Some levels have toxic clouds that will make your animals sick. You’ll have to combat this with antibiotic towers to keep your animals alive. Some levels have protesters that will shut down your towers. You’ll have to hire armed guards to combat them. You can also hire employees who prod the animals to move faster, helping you get them across the field quicker before they get hungry or thirsty. The prodding is one of the techniques that, when overused, can kill your animals, so there are multiple things to keep in balance.
There is a definite message here, and a fairly heavy-handed one. The farms in the game are forcing you to fatten up cows, chickens, and pigs through the use of antibiotics, growth hormones, and overfeeding. Heck, even the game’s title logo shows a sad chicken being injected with a huge syringe. It’s strange, because as a tower defense game, it could have sent all the message it needed to. After all, you are rewarded for using as little money as possible to feed the animals, keep them watered, and get them to the slaughterhouse. If this means the animals are almost starving or thirsty at some points during the journey, it does not count against your score. Add to that the fact that the money you receive is called "Murderbux," and it becomes pretty clear what you’re doing to win the game is considered morally wrong by the designers. I looked for PETA in the credits, and was honestly surprised not to find them there.
But oddly, the message sometimes seems to get off track. A protester named Barry "Gravy" Graveson seems to be portrayed as irresponsible as well. He’ll show up at the Fat Chicken farm and try to get you to join his group of animal rights protesters saying things like, "How’m I supposed to know how people’ll afford meat when Fat Chicken’s not around? They can grab some greens to eat." Still, even with these moments of confusion, the overall message seems clear.
