If a museum is using an external designer to build a game, then perhaps the most crucial step in the process is getting the brief right.
Holly Gramazio, a games designer at Matheson Marcault, says that studios are often given a fair amount of creative freedom by museums.
“Museums tend to have a pretty clear idea of what their constraints are and what they want to achieve from a game,” she says. “But there’s often quite a bit of flexibility around the actual game itself.”
The ideal briefs, she says, give designers freedom, while providing information on key details such as:
“Being given something that is already half-designed is always a struggle,” she adds.
There is very wide range of options in terms of the number of players a game is designed for, whether it is physical or digital, and its form.
Gramazio says that much will be determined by considering the ambitions of the museum and its budget constraints.
“You can do a very small-scale physical game pretty easily,” she says. “If you want something that will stay in place for two days and engages 150 people, you can do that in a relatively efficient way.
“If you want to scale up and have something that stays in place for a really long time or engages a really high number of players, that’s when putting in the investment to have something that is at least partly digital is often going to pay off.”
Gramazio says that museums tend to be good at writing clear tenders on their requirements, although the habit of using the same application process for small and very large projects can be prohibitive.
“Occasionally we’ve had to turn down really interesting-looking tenders, just because the amount of information that’s needed for a quite early-stage proposal is so immense,” she explains.
“Thinking realistically about the sometimes quite small studios who are going to be responding to it, and the amount of time it’s going to take them, is something that some museums could pay more attention to.”
The budget and time needed for creating a game can vary hugely depending on its nature. Gramazio has seen good museum games that cost £500.
But she estimates that others have cost six-figure sums: “The range of scale of ambition possible in games is just as broad as in any other art form.”
The design process should include testing to see how people respond to playing the game.
“Any game designer worth their salt will do play testing as part of the development Gramazio says. “You’ll come up with the basic concept, make an approximate version of it, try that out, and see how it goes.”
In terms of assessing the success of a game, she says that observation of how people play is important, and visitor surveys can also be helpful. Digital games will often provide data on users.
Gramazio says that if a museum is new to using games, it can be a good idea to start small – perhaps with a small project tied to an event, holiday or themed month where there will be high footfall.
“If a museum wants to experiment with games and has a small budget, it is probably better off finding three to six interesting artists and game designers who are relatively early on in their respective careers, and getting them to make something and running it at an event and seeing how that goes,” says Gramazio.
“That way, they can get a feel for how games work in their space and how their audiences respond, rather than jumping in and saying ‘this will be the thing we do’ straight away.”
Holly Gramazio, a games designer at Matheson Marcault, says that studios are often given a fair amount of creative freedom by museums.
“Museums tend to have a pretty clear idea of what their constraints are and what they want to achieve from a game,” she says. “But there’s often quite a bit of flexibility around the actual game itself.”
The ideal briefs, she says, give designers freedom, while providing information on key details such as:
- Budget
- Available space
- Staff resources
- Target audiences
- Format (for example, a card game)
“Being given something that is already half-designed is always a struggle,” she adds.
There is very wide range of options in terms of the number of players a game is designed for, whether it is physical or digital, and its form.
Gramazio says that much will be determined by considering the ambitions of the museum and its budget constraints.
“You can do a very small-scale physical game pretty easily,” she says. “If you want something that will stay in place for two days and engages 150 people, you can do that in a relatively efficient way.
“If you want to scale up and have something that stays in place for a really long time or engages a really high number of players, that’s when putting in the investment to have something that is at least partly digital is often going to pay off.”
Gramazio says that museums tend to be good at writing clear tenders on their requirements, although the habit of using the same application process for small and very large projects can be prohibitive.
“Occasionally we’ve had to turn down really interesting-looking tenders, just because the amount of information that’s needed for a quite early-stage proposal is so immense,” she explains.
“Thinking realistically about the sometimes quite small studios who are going to be responding to it, and the amount of time it’s going to take them, is something that some museums could pay more attention to.”
The budget and time needed for creating a game can vary hugely depending on its nature. Gramazio has seen good museum games that cost £500.
But she estimates that others have cost six-figure sums: “The range of scale of ambition possible in games is just as broad as in any other art form.”
The design process should include testing to see how people respond to playing the game.
“Any game designer worth their salt will do play testing as part of the development Gramazio says. “You’ll come up with the basic concept, make an approximate version of it, try that out, and see how it goes.”
In terms of assessing the success of a game, she says that observation of how people play is important, and visitor surveys can also be helpful. Digital games will often provide data on users.
Gramazio says that if a museum is new to using games, it can be a good idea to start small – perhaps with a small project tied to an event, holiday or themed month where there will be high footfall.
“If a museum wants to experiment with games and has a small budget, it is probably better off finding three to six interesting artists and game designers who are relatively early on in their respective careers, and getting them to make something and running it at an event and seeing how that goes,” says Gramazio.
“That way, they can get a feel for how games work in their space and how their audiences respond, rather than jumping in and saying ‘this will be the thing we do’ straight away.”