V&A Museum to highlight game design innovations in coming exhibit

The Victoria and Albert Museum in London will be hosting Videogames: Design/Play/Disrupt this coming September, an exhibit that seeks to explore recent evolutions in game design innovations and their growing impact on players and communities.

The exhibit itself will offer game developers a look at some early design materials, prototypes, and other artifacts from the development of notable triple-A and indie titles alike such as Splatoon, Kentucky Route Zero, The Last of Us, and Journey. 

Organizers note that the upcoming exhibit aims to dive into how designers have adapted and transformed their own methods in the wake of technological and social media changes throughout the last decade.

To do this, Design/Play/Disrupt is divided into three separate sections. The first seeks to examine design inspirations, craftsmanship, and creative practice behind a number of individual games by sharing things like character design sketches, early animations, notes, and other works from developers. 

The second section explores video games as tools to communicate and engage with complex social issues and ethical debates through interviews with notable industry figures like Rami Ismail and Tanya de Pass. The third section, meanwhile, aims to showcase the community and culture fostered by games like Minecraft and League of Legends through large-scale interactive displays. 

“There is a rich universality to video games in contemporary culture,” said V&A director Tristram Hun in a statement. “There is a wealth of creativity to explore, from the craft of the studios to the innovation of the audience as players. The exhibition will provide a compelling insight into one of the most important design disciplines of our time.”

The exhibit is set to open on September 8 and will run until February 24, 2019. More details can be found on the museum’s website.