Major titles added to Game Worlds exhibition
Premiering at ACMI from 18 September 2025, Game Worlds explores the creative connection between developers, players and technology. Through original design materials, concept art, rare objects, and more than 44 opportunities to play games, this new blockbuster exhibition illuminates how we design, build and experience videogames.
ACMI Game Worlds, Minecraft (2009-), key art courtesy of Mojang Studios.
Major titles featured in the exhibition include Final Fantasy XIV Online (Square Enix), Minecraft (Mojang Studios), The EIder Scrolls Online (ZeniMax Online Studios/Bethesda Softworks), SimCity (Electronic Arts) and Stardew Valley (ConcernedApe) alongside previously announced games World of Warcraft (Blizzard Entertainment), The Sims (Electronic Arts), Neopets (World of Neopia) and anticipated Australian new release Hollow Knight: Silksong (Team Cherry).
Visitors can discover how home-grown studios bring games to life, tracking the development of Isopod by Queensland’s Sbug Games and new playable prototypes by Melbourne’s 2pt Interactive. Also featured are Guardian Maia (Metia Interactive), Terra Nil (Free Lives/Devolver Digital) and Celeste (Maddy Makes Games). The exhibition also includes home-computer classics from the 1980s and 90s like The Sentinel (Geoff Crammond/Firebird), The Hobbit (Melbourne House), DOOM (1993) (id Software/Bethesda Softworks) and Team Fortress (Valve); and early pioneering titles from the 1970’s including Maze War (Greg Thompson and Dave Lebling), Colossal Cave Adventure (William Crowther) and groundbreaking text-based adventure game Zork (Infocom).
ACMI Game Worlds, The Elder Scrolls Online (2014), promo image courtesy of ZeniMax Online Studios / Bethesda Softworks.
Visitors can play after dark with late-night access, plus developer talks, inclusive and accessible exhibition visits and industry events throughout the run. Celebrate your community and discover new friends at a series of themed fan events, with dates to be announced.
Four newly commissioned microgames from established and emerging Australian game developers will also be playable across the museum. Players can care for a communal creature in ACMI EGG by Apartment 809 (Leura Smith and Katsumi Yoshida); restore colour to the game world in Tim Koch’s puzzle Salix8 Sunset; traverse different perspectives in Callum Chatfield and Mally He’s What’s Your Angle; and be transported back to the golden era of videogame hint lines in Hint Line ’93 by Secret Lab in collaboration with Yarn Spinner and Mars Bitfield-Addison.
Exclusive merchandise will only be available from ACMI Shop, including limited-edition collectibles for Neopets, The Sims and Hollow Knight: Silksong, plus a series of ACMI-produced books delving into The Sims and Hollow Knight: Silksong.
For more than 20 years, ACMI has been the home of videogames in Australia. Game Worlds is the third in a series of major large scale videogame exhibitions after Game On (2008) and the ACMI-made Game Masters (2012), which was seen by more than 1.1 million people worldwide when it toured internationally. It follows the success of 2017’s Code Breakers, celebrating the achievements of women in the games industry; 2022’s Out of Bounds: Exploring the Limits of Videogames; and 2024’s Honk! Untitled Goose Exhibition, exploring the hit Melbourne-made videogame.
Curated and built by ACMI, Game Worlds allows visitors to play videogames in ways you can’t at home; from playing pioneering games of the past, to competing against a world record-breaking speedrun.
ACMI Game Worlds, Stardew Valley (2016-), screenshot courtesy of ConcernedApe.
ACMI Director & CEO Seb Chan said: “Game Worlds is not just an exhibition for videogame fans and their families, but for those who are curious about why we say they are the ‘defining art form of this century’. This exhibition celebrates the people, the players, the craft and technologies that make on-screen worldbuilding possible. We are very excited to premiere a new ACMI-made exhibition for our visitors to experience, play, and enjoy here in Melbourne first, before it heads out overseas on a long international tour.”
Co-Curators Bethan Johnson and Jini Maxwell said: “By charting over 50 years of technical innovation and personal creativity, Game Worlds offers a new perspective on videogames, revealing the abstract, even absurd, foundation of technical innovation that underpins the world’s most popular entertainment medium, and celebrating the communities that form within them. Our exhibition honours the real-life experiences that are made possible by and through videogames, highlighting the players and developers – and stories that bring videogame worlds to life.”
Minister for Creative Industries Colin Brooks said: “We’re proud to support ACMI’s Game Worlds which is gearing up to unite digital games enthusiasts of all ages by while championing our talented local games studios and emerging game makers. ACMI will be a central hub for the 2025 Melbourne International Games Week – Asia Pacific’s largest digital games celebration – and Game Worlds will be just one of many exciting drawcards for Games Week fans.”
Game Worlds is proudly supported by Major Technology Partner Panasonic, Major Research Partner RMIT University, Official Hotel Partner Sofitel Melbourne On Collins, and Supporting Partner Haymes Paint.
Game Worlds will run 18 September 2025 to 8 February 2026 in ACMI’s Gallery 4. Tickets now on sale via acmi.net.au
About the Author
Adrian Gunning Adrian lives in Melbourne Australia and has a huge passion for gaming, technology and pop culture. He recently finished his a Bachelor of Journalism and is currently focusing on games journalism. When not writing and playing video games, Adrian can be found in Comics 'R' Us debating the pros of the DC Universe and cons of the Marvel Universe.
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