Launching in July, the 1980s-inspired gallery at The Story Museum in Oxford explores the impact of video games on telling stories and includes custom-built arcade machines.
The Story Arcade is a new permanent exhibition that charts key moments in gaming history from early plot-based classic games to open world adventures and features arcade machines, dressing up, a ’Side-Quest’ trail, board games, and pixel-themed crafts and activities.
Young people visiting the gallery can explore landmark moments in gaming history and how evolving storytelling techniques let players experience new emotional, social, cultural, and historical perspectives. The Story Arcade also features games created by young designers from The Story Museum’s Digital Dreamers programme.
The Story Arcade, supported by The National Lottery Heritage Fund, invites people to play, learn, and imagine together. It focuses on how gaming continues to reshape how we share and experience stories in the digital age.
Author, artistic director and games writer, Sharna Jackson has been consulted on the new gallery. She said: “This new gallery at The Story Museum explores the incredible artistry and scope of storytelling through video games, which will enthral both seasoned games enthusiasts, and those who are curious and want to find out more.
“From the very earliest concepts – fighting aliens in ‘70s Space Invaders, to the story-driven adventures in the game I wrote on ‘Saltea Chronicles’, at The Story Arcade, it’s possible to step into the shoes of a diverse range of characters, exploring fantastical worlds, making decisions that inform the narrative of the game, the player experiencing a range of emotions: empathy, curiosity, resilience and hope.”
The Story Museum’s CEO Caroline Jones added: “The Story Arcade is a brand-new gallery that explores another exciting realm of storytelling. Having travelled through 2,000 years of stories - from oral traditions in our Whispering Wood, through printed literature in our Enchanted Library - visitors will now step into an arcade like no other.
“We’ll take them on a journey from the seventies arcade classic ‘Space Invaders’ to more recent games such as ‘Never Alone’, plus a whole heap of other activities and objects to explore in true Story Museum hands-on style. Thank you to all The National Lottery players for making this project possible. Game on!”
The Story Arcade also features games created by young designers from The Story Museum’s Digital Dreamers programme. Funded by the Heritage Fund, young game-makers from a local school worked with industry professionals to select stories from The Story Museum’s Digital 1001 Collection, and reimagine them as video games.
School visits
School groups from years 1 to 13 can visit The Story Museum to explore the galleries and take part in themed literacy sessions. The museum also offers story-themed walks through Oxford to see iconic places in the city that inspired its most famous fantasy writers.
The Story Arcade can be visited during a Galleries Tour and Literacy Session or a Day of Delight, which includes time to explore the galleries at the museum. Literacy sessions at the museum focus on outcomes, including speaking and listening presentation, illustrated and annotated design, writing drafts and using quotations.
School visits are for up to 32 pupils and take place Tuesday to Friday with morning and afternoon sessions available. Each session is led by a member of the learning team who are all qualified primary and secondary teachers.
For more information about The Story Museum, visit www.storymuseum.org.uk.
