IT’S PLAYTIME! The art and craft of Videogames is to be celebrated in a new exhibition at the National Videogame Museum. Here’s the lowdown on what you can expect…
WHAT IS IT?
The Art of Play is an upcoming exhibition at the NVM, based at Castlegate in Sheffield city centre, and will be going “behind the screens” to reveal the art, creativity and people behind five UK-made videogames. Opening on 14th October, the exhibition will be emphasising the handmade and traditional techniques used within games and how they create the unique textures and moods seen on screen. Developed through conversations with UK-based games studios, the exhibit showcases drawings, notebooks and physical models, as well as interviews with designers and artists detailing inspirations behind the games.
AoP Monument Valley – Ustwo Games
WHICH GAMES WILL BE FEATURED?
Featured case studies include award-winning contemporary games Monument Valley, Lumino City and No Longer Home, as well as classics like the Dizzy series, a remake of Lemmings, the famous Angry Birds and Yorkshire’s very own Worms.
WHAT WILL YOU BE ABLE TO SEE?
You’ll be able to see videogames presented as contemporary art, illustrating the handcrafted techniques and creativity behind indie games. Visitors will be able to immerse themselves in a newly released Panoramic Edition of Monument Valley, a meditative puzzle game influenced by the works of artist M.C. Escher, with seemingly impossible geometric architecture brought to life as 21st-century interactive labyrinths. Contrasting the contemporary with the historic, on display in Sheffield for the first time is a hand-drawn map, created by the Oliver twins in 1989, for the iconic Dizzy series of games. The Fantasy World Dizzy map features hundreds of intricate level details such as clouds, trapdoors and bean-stalks, all sketched in pencil – and it even includes alternative titles for the game which had not yet been coded. A series of rarely seen objects on display include an Amiga 4000 computer (on loan from the US) that was used to design and develop the videogame Worms 2. Through design memos, rough notes and storyboard designs, Art Director for Worms 2 Cris Blyth paints a picture of how blockbuster games were created here in Yorkshire during the late 1990s.
Lumino City – State of Play Games
DID YOU KNOW?
The National Videogame Museum is the UK’s only museum dedicated to videogames. Its ethos was to create a space where anyone from every background can play, explore and create videogames. The NVM moved to Sheffield in 2018 and is based at Castle House, Angel Street, in Sheffield city centre.
The Art of Play opens Friday 14th October
National Videogame Museum
Castlegate, S3 8LN
