TITLE
We Pitched a Museum a 1993 Game Hint Line (And They Actually Said Yes)
AUTHOR
Yarn Spinner
PUBLICATION
Yarn Spinner
YEAR
2026
ARTICLE TYPE
Postmortem
FROM THE ARTICLE
Early 2025, ACMI, the Australian museum of screen culture, put out a call for comissions for Game Worlds. They wanted to commission microgames from Australian developers, and the brief was deliberately open: make something playable for a museum context, 5-10 minutes of experience, ready in two months. The games were to feature compelling world-building, interesting relationships between player and maker, be easily understood by a wide variety of visitors in terms of game design, playability and mechanics, and be a playful, and thoughtful response to the context of ACMI as a museum of screen culture.We were excited to pitch, but after brainstorming a few ideas, we realised that we wanted to do something that was a bit different. Something that would be a bit of a surprise.
So we pitched a ridiculous idea Paris had: a hint line simulator with a 300-page physical binder.
COMPANIES MENTIONED
Australian Centre for the Moving Image
Yarn Spinner
GAMES MENTIONED
Hint Line ’93
PEOPLE MENTIONED
Mars Buttfield-Addison
Paris Buttfield-Addison
Brian Costelloe
Tim Gadler
Jon Manning
Tim Nugent
Meghann O’Neill