ACMI’s Game Worlds has finally opened to the public, just ahead of Melbourne International Games Week (MIGW) 2025, which means you can now immerse yourself in one of the most visually striking, endlessly interactive activities Melbourne has to offer.
Covering a significant portion of gaming’s history, from text-based games, to Hollow Knight: Silksong, and beyond, Game Worlds is a lovingly crafted, uber-geeky yet accessible exhibition that invites attendees to learn, play and think.
In the first room, you’ll be met with coverage of the early days of video gaming, starting in the 1970s and 1980s, and you’ll get to play two text-based games: Zork (1980), and The Hobbit (1982). I found both of these surprisingly fun, mostly thanks to the superbly evocative writing.
Game Worlds at ACMI: quick links
Interacting at Game Worlds
Next to those displays you’ll find an epic touch table where you can sit with four of your friends to play a virtual Dungeons and Dragons campaign. If you can manage to drag yourself away from that, the next room shows chunky computers from the 1990s, where you can re-enact a LAN party in a multiplayer first-person shooter game.
Around the corner was a real taste of my childhood: Neopets. On purpose-built screens, you can re-experience the days of after school leisure on one of the world’s most loved kids’ websites of yesteryear. The giant omelette, the wishing well, the starving rainbow-dyed creatures you forgot about: they’re all here. I personally really enjoyed getting a high score in Turmac Roll (and so did the teens sitting next to me) – and I’m delighted to say it’s still online.
What do we want? Silksong
Most folks keen for Game Worlds will likely be around for one key thing: Silksong. The Hollow Knight series, developed by Adelaide-based company Team Cherry, is an immensely popular platformer game with adorable graphics that requires quick movements and skill to beat. The latest entry, Silksong, recently crashed the Steam store due to so many people downloading it simultaneously. There are six separate screens on which to play it at ACMI, which will likely see a lot of strain over the holidays.
Among my personal highlights were a collection of touch screens dedicated to terraforming and redecorating a Stardew Valley farm. The farming simulator, which is the work of just one person, Eric Barrone (who goes by ConcernedApe), is an extremely moreish time sink in which you roleplay as a farmer who must refurbish your grandpa’s old homestead, make money selling fruits and veg, and impress the villagers of a small town while you’re at it. I’ve logged over 300 hours on it.
My other personal highlight is the sheer-curtained alcove dedicated to romance simulation in games. Titled ‘LOVE.EXE’, this risque little room showcases some of the romantic and sexual relationships in games like Baldur’s Gate 3 – without showing anything below the belt. Entering is on your own terms, but if you don’t, you’ll miss out on a gloriously hi-def panel of Astarion, shirtless, and covered in sweat.
Other titles among the 30+ games showcased include The Sims and SimCity, Minecraft, Team Fortress, World of Warcraft, Final Fantasy XVI Online, Celeste, and Elder Scrolls Online. Not only can you actually play most of these titles on the exhibition floor, you can also see exclusive and rare items like original packaging and instruction manuals, behind-the-scenes clips of how the games were developed, and some wonderfully experimental art that celebrates the chaos of the glitch.
You can also find four mini-games commissioned exclusively for ACMI, which are:
- ACMI EGG, by Apartment 809: care for a creature hatched at ACMI.
- Salix8 Sunset, by Tim Koch: restore colour to the world in this puzzle.
- What’s Your Angle, by Callum Chatfield and Mally He: traverse different perspectives.
- Hint Line ’93 by SecretLab and Yarn Spinner: answer calls on a videogame hint line (yes, they existed and that was all we had before the internet!).
Game Worlds: final verdict
I had a blast playing everything at Game Worlds, and I found the whole thing extremely informative, and clearly crafted by people who adore games. If you count yourself in that category, you should definitely get along to Game Worlds at ACMI.
Game Worlds runs from 18 September 2025 to 8 February 2026 at ACMI in Melbourne, Australia.
