The National Videogame Museum has announced a new exhibition on the art and craft of video games

A new exhibition on the art and craft of video games is set to debut this October at the National Videogame Museum in Sheffield.

Called ‘The Art of Play’, the exhibition will go “behind the screens” to reveal the art, creativity and people behind five video games from the UK. It will focus on the non-digital aspects of game development that help to create unique textures and varied moods in game software.

Drawings, notebooks and physical models from UK based games studios will all be on display, alongside video interviews with designers and artists discussing game development. Titles featured at the new museum installation will include award-winning contemporary games like Monument Valley, Lumino City and No Longer Home, as well as beloved UK classics like Dizzy and Worms.

There will be many historic video game treasures at the event, including a hand-drawn map, created by the Oliver Twins in 1989 for Dizzy III that will be on display in the museum for the first time. Visitors will be able to see the intricate level of detail to which the game was planned, as well as see some alternative titles for the game from its earliest days.

Other items include the Amiga 4000 computer that was used to design and develop the video game Worms 2, alongside design memos, rough notes and storyboard designs for the ever-popular game that together should inform and educate the museum’s visitors on how games were developed in the late 1990s. 

“We are delighted to be showcasing the expertise,craft, and art of videogames. Through this exhibition (and the support of Art Fund) we are able to celebrate videogame art as art, and explore how game developers use traditional techniques to produce stunning and contemporary interactive artworks.” said Dr. Michael Pennington, Curator at The National Videogame Museum. 

“Thanks to Arts Council support we have been able to dig deeper into objects within our collection,” said Emily Theodore Marlow, Curator at The National Videogame Museum. “and through speaking to Worms designer Cris Blyth, paint a picture of what it was like to make video games in the 1990s in Yorkshire.”

The Art of Play exhibition opens to the public on October 14, 2022. If you’d like to get tickets, they’re available over on the National Videogame Museum’s site.