It might have been set in a quaint little English village, but the viral Untitled Goose Game was created in Victoria by gaming company House House in 2019.
Anyone who played it will remember adopting the role of a prankster goose who wreaks havoc on its community. The game became a global phenomenon, winning a Bafta in 2020 for Best Family Game. It also won the 2020 Dice Game of the Year (basically the Oscars for gaming). Later this year, Untitled Goose Game gets another honour: it’ll be commemorated as part of a public exhibition at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI).
“It’s a very strange privilege,” said House House co-director Michael McMaster in a statement. “Though we design our games to be played by a wide audience, we never imagined that the design process might itself be made accessible within the walls of a gallery.”
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SIGN UPHonk! Untitled Goose Exhibition will open at ACMI on September 17 as part of the 10th annual Melbourne International Games Week. It’s a world-premiere exhibition that’ll include design sketches and early versions of the game that visitors can play.
“It’s been such a pleasure working with ACMI to open up our sketchbooks and hard drives and present them to the public like this. We can’t imagine a better place to showcase our goose,” said McMaster.
The free exhibition will focus on the game’s innovation and design as well as placing it in the history of slapstick. “As a museum of screen culture, video games are at the heart of what we do,” said ACMI CEO Seb Chan in a statement. “We’re honoured to give the goose the exhibition it deserves.”
Honk! Untitled Goose Game Exhibition will run from September 17 to February 16, 2025.