Hey guys! I've got a project coming up at university where we need to design an interactive museum guide for a (sadly fictional) video game museum exhibition and we're required to poll real people about this exhibition to help with the design. I figure why not poll a forum full of gamers? Basically, I need to discover what potential attendees of this museum would like from a new system designed to allow them to interact with the museum in novel and interesting ways. Using the interactive guide, museum attendees will be encouraged to engage with the videogame museum exhibits/events in novel and interesting ways. The system should be innovative and original, using new technologies to provide an engaging, fun and informative interactive guide. Here's the story: We have a few basic requirements for the interactive museum guide system, this might give you some ideas on what you think would be cool to see: • An interactive map to help attendees navigate the museum and learn more about the exhibits • Easily accessible and contextually relevant information/media associated with nearby exhibits • A schedule of events to be hosted by participating developers/publishers to highlight specific exhibits • A gamification element that allows attendees to earn points/credit based on their specific exposure to museum exhibits/events and exchange the points/credit for a realKlife badge at the end of the day • A social element, which can be tied to the gamification element, that would encourage attendee involvement and the sharing of museum experiences (some examples: interactive AR game, posting/rating of exhibit impressions to a social hub, online rankings for a quiz or exposure to exhibits, etc.) • A novel way of integrating 'the Cube' into the system design (see www.thecube.qut.edu.au). Some examples: display of gamification or social elements, as a means to help users navigate/learn about the exhibits/events, for presentations by publishers/developers, etc. In terms of how realistic/practical the interactive guide's tech can be, we've been told that "QUT is willing to purchase/build technology to realize your studio's creative vision." so you can get a little "creative" when it comes to how realistic your ideas can be. Do you guys have any thoughts? Post 'em below! Thanks for your input!
Something like a smartphone/tablet app where you could scan/tap with NFC certain exhibits to get more information, possibly interviews with the creators, etc. would be cool, especially for a video game museum. Obviously the app could include the map and schedule as well as a scavenger hunt type of "gamification element".
When you say "interviews with the creators" do you mean like recorded video interviews or live interviews?
When displaying things in a museum, some think you should let the viewer come to their own conclusions about the piece. Others think you should offer some level of explanation. Because videogame museums are uncommon, videogames themselves are interactive, and people are probably less knowledgeable about the history of Tetris than the history of Guernica, I think you have to have a write up about each piece that at least states: how to play (yes, this implies the games should be playable!) or better yet: scans of the manual, who created it, and why this piece was chosen. Maybe it was chosen because it was innovative, maybe it was chosen because it was popular, maybe there is another reason... Come to think of it, the best experience I've had with a museum guide is this: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/audio-tours-at-barnes-foundation/id525686668?mt=8 . The museum lent you an iPod touch running the app for free if you didn't already have it. It lets you tweet about the piece you're looking at, gives wonderful explanations with experts in the field and they do a good job of explaining many different aspects of the pieces. For some things, it lets you click to get even more info elsewhere. Fine art is different from videogames, though... MoMA in New York has/had a videogames exhibit, and I was disappointed. The game selection was questionable, and I went to play Vib-Ribbon, but the controller was a junky 3rd party controller. The buttons weren't even mapped correctly. That led me to believe the game was running on an emulator and no one bothered to even configure the buttons or anything. There were also no instructions on how to play the game! Vib Ribbon is simple, but not at all intuitive. Part of the experience of gaming is (was) reading the manual. I feel like that's the equivalent of hanging Munch's The Scream sideways, and everyone is left to figure out what's going on...
Preferably ones recorded specifically for the exhibit, or if that's not possible (obviously some game creators are no longer with us), ones recorded earlier, but I wasn't expecting the people making the games to just sit around for it. Though if you could get some decent creators for Q&A sessions...
blotter12: The audio guide is a good idea! On your point about possibly emulated games being exhibited, did you ever go to the "Game On!" exhibition? They at least had all real hardware, which was part of the enjoyment. The first time I saw a Virtual Boy was at this exhibition, now I own one sonicsean89: Hmmm, you could almost put pre-recorded interviews on the interactive guide, would save people crowding around a single screen to watch them.
