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Running a museum, I imagine, is probably quite hard work. Academia is a nightmare to deal with, VIP visitors and families want to be entertained. Ben Stiller’s chasing a tiny wax Owen Wilson all over the shop and the T-Rex skeleton has gotten loose, again. Developers Viewport Games reckon that sounds like an absolute riot, and have only gone and thrown together their own museum-builder. Scrap your plans to go to the galleries with your gran next year – we’re planning a trip to Mondo Museum.
Here’s your first look at the exhibition tycoon – no membership card required.
Mondo Museum will let you shape any sort of collection you want, from a Louvre-style high art collection to, I dunno, something akin to Glasgow Science Centre. As you gain fame other institutions will lend you their collections, including Ancient Egypt, space exploration and dinosaurs. Publishers Kitfox Games have promised mod support, meaning you could potentially make an exhibition on, say, the greatest crabs.
Will Viewport Games tackle the murky, often violent ways History Museums in particular have plundered the global south to fill out their collections? Perhaps not, but it’s early days yet.
In this economy, you’ve got to make sure visitors are buying nick-nacks from your gift shop and taking their grandkids on Sunday trips to the cafeteria in order to pay the bills. You’ll also be managing the back-end, keeping researchers and conservators on staff to make sure you’re on the cutting edge of old stuff. It’s like a business, but with the profits going into taxidermy whales.
Mondo Museum opens its doors to Steam in 2020. If the concept of digital museum spaces has piqued your interest, then please follow the velvet to my own look at independent exhibitions from earlier this year. Donations, as always, are optional.