Start your quest: Game Worlds introduction

Object
Courtesy Hewlett-Packard Company Archives

Game worlds are built with code, creativity and imagination.

From fantasy realms to sandbox cities and haunted ruins, they reflect the tools, ideas and people behind them. Gamemakers create the terrain and textures, but it’s the players who bring these places to life: exploring, building, modifying and expanding what’s possible. Every game world is a shared creation, shaped by design and discovery. And as technology changes, so do the ways we make, share and experience these spaces – opening up new forms of artistry and connection while other paths are closed off.

This exhibition explores how creativity, technology and player communities come together to make the worlds we play in. Whether coded from scratch or expanded through play, game worlds are living spaces that evolve with every interaction, hack, choice and creative breakthrough.

Understanding Game Worlds

Have you already visited Game Worlds? If you have, here are some questions to help you consider what you saw as a designer, player or critic. Every display can be revisited on your Lens, and these questions may help you see the exhibition from a new perspective.

  • What makes a game world feel real, alive or meaningful?
    Look for the small details, sounds and choices that build a world.
  • How do the rules, visuals, and interactions in a game reflect the values and ideas of its creators?
  • Think about why a game was made this way – what it’s trying to say or challenge.
  • In what ways is playing a game a form of self-expression or identity-making?
    Notice how games let people tell their own stories or become someone else.
  • How do players shape, change, or extend the life of a game?
    See where community takes over through modding, speedruns, fan art or cosplay.
  • What can games tell us about the societies, cultures, and histories that make them?
    Ask what this game is saying about the world – or what it leaves out.
  • How does technology shape the way games are designed, played, and shared?From pixels to the cloud, notice how tools and platforms expand what games can do.

Works in this group

Courtesy Cave Research Foundation

Related articles

Related works

Content notification

Our collection comprises over 40,000 moving image works, acquired and catalogued between the 1940s and early 2000s. As a result, some items may reflect outdated, offensive and possibly harmful views and opinions. ACMI is working to identify and redress such usages.

Learn more about our collection and our collection policy here. If you come across harmful content on our website that you would like to report, let us know.

Collection

Not in ACMI's collection

Collection metadata

ACMI Identifier

198404

Object Types

Group

Collected

50020 times

Please note: this archive is an ongoing body of work. Sometimes the credit information (director, year etc) isn’t available so these fields may be left blank; we are progressively filling these in with further research.

Cite this work on Wikipedia

If you would like to cite this item, please use the following template: {{cite web |url=https://acmi.net.au/works/125358--start-quest-game-worlds/ |title=Start your quest: Game Worlds introduction |author=Australian Centre for the Moving Image |access-date=15 January 2026 |publisher=Australian Centre for the Moving Image}}