Two Level Museum—out there now on PC and consoles—is the third sport within the Two Level franchise. The wacky sim sequence began off with Two Level Hospital in 2018 after which leaped to high schools and universities in 2022’s Two Level Campus. Now, gamers are capable of construct their very own wild and peculiar museums in Two Level Museum.
And after spending over 40 hours with the sport, I talked to Ben Huskins, design director at Two Level Studios, about this newest entry. We mentioned why the staff went with museums, how they researched the subject, the brand new options they’re enthusiastic about and in addition, in the event that they too battle with spelling “museum” precisely.
In accordance with Huskins, spelling museum mistaken grew to become a “operating joke” within the studio throughout growth.
“Lead Designer Luke is a giant fan of ‘musuem’ – we expect he’s making an attempt to push for the phrase to be formally up to date within the dictionary,” mentioned Huskins. “All through growth, we’ve been discovering a beautiful smorgasbord of museum typos in each nook and cranny of the sport. It’s notably amusing as our trailer finally ends up with the road ‘You’ll be able to’t spell museum with out u and me… um…’ Seems we are able to’t spell museum full cease.”
Whereas the devs may need struggled with spelling museum proper, they nailed making an ideal sport about these locations devoted to historical past and information.
However I used to be curious as to why the staff determined to go along with museums for the third entry within the first place. Whereas it defiantly labored out, a museum sim wouldn’t have been my first alternative after Campus and Hospital. In accordance with Huskins, the staff wished to make a sport about creation, exploration, and discovery, and as soon as they began speaking about museums they have been “impressed by the chances.”
“One thing that’s nice about museums is all of them have fully distinctive collections of reveals,” mentioned Huskins.
“We thought it could be nice to permit gamers to construct up their very own distinctive collections, with each participant discovering various things. The expedition system felt like it could give us this glorious sense of journey, permitting you to decide on the place you wish to discover, after which including that sense of pleasure and anticipation about what you may uncover. Then, as your assortment grows, we wished you to have full inventive freedom to determine easy methods to lay out your museum, and to craft an awe-inspiring and academic expertise for guests.”
And whereas the museums you construct in Two Level are full of unusual and cartoonish reveals, like large man-eating crops and ghosts, the staff nonetheless did lots of analysis to determine how actual museums work.
“We spoke to a number of individuals who work in museums. We even received a couple of behind-the-scenes excursions, which have been superb,” defined Huskins.
“There are such a lot of completely different roles concerned in operating a museum, every little thing from the folks designing the exhibition areas to the technicians taking care of the reveals. There was no method we might signify all of them within the sport, however there are such a lot of little options we added primarily based on these conversations.”
For instance, the director advised me that staff-only doorways have been one such function they added primarily based on museum analysis. Additionally they found that many museums in the true world categorize guests in to “varied personas” akin to thrill-seekers and explorer. This helped information how the sport handles digital friends and their preferences.
And a few of these friends are vampires and aliens. But, like the opposite Two Level video games, Museum completely balances real-world particulars, like having to handle your employees’s pay and construct restrooms for friends, alongside these outlandish elements which are solely doable in a online game. In accordance with Huskins this can be a key pillar of the Two Level components.
“Having that juxtaposition is essential for us – if every little thing is absurd, then nothing feels absurd, so we wish to have that distinction,” mentioned Huskins.
“After all, we’re additionally making an attempt to design a sport with lots of depth to the simulation. We’re not particularly making an attempt to mannequin actuality, removed from it, however we take some inspiration from actual world organizations, then distill it down into one thing simpler to know. In the end, our precedence is enjoyable, so we’ll choose and select the weather that give us the depth and the variability we wish, while preserving the sport approachable and lighthearted.”
Two Level Museum is out now digitally on Xbox Sequence X/S, PlayStation 5, and PC.
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