Paradise Multimedia: Creating Museum Experiences with GDevelop

Today, we speak with Andy from Paradise Multimedia. Andy's been creating multimedia experiences for museums in England with GDevelop, and today, we'll find out about Diagnosis Doctor, Noah's Ark and why GDevelop is Andy's tool of choice.

The Severn Rising. Meadow Arts, Wartermark 2023. Image courtesy Meadow Arts. Photographer  Tegen Kimbley.

Last time we spoke, you had just finished The Severn Rising, an arcade museum exhibit made with GDevelop. How has that project impacted your professional career?

It has had a real positive impact in terms of the experience gained. Managing a larger project like Severn Rising and all that entails shows prospective clients what you are capable of.

Spending the best part of a year working on the interactive and other aspects of the project has helped me focus my work even more around digital interactives and this is now the vast majority of my work.

Has GDevelop played a role in that change? If so, has it been a positive or negative one?

GDevelop allows me to quicky thrash out ideas and make proof of concepts which is a big help when pitching ideas. Getting proof of concepts together early is also great for your peace of mind when you are pitching for a fixed budget and development time.

Gameplay from upcoming project Stellar Pantomime.

I find that every project builds on the previous ones with many techniques transferring between projects. The ability to get a browser version of the game up in a couple of clicks is great for sharing work in progress with clients.

You now have more interactive experiences made with GDevelop for museums. One is Diagnosis Dr. Can you explain how the concept of the experience came to be, and why it worked for the museum partner you worked with?

Photo courtesy of the Infirmary Museum https://medicalmuseum.org.uk/

Diagnosis Doctor was an idea I pitched to the george marshall medical museum who were one of the museums I worked with for severn rising, the original pitch was a modern re-imagining of the old MS-DOS game ‘Life & Death 2: The Brain’.

They introduced me to the Infirmary Museum who happened to be looking for a new interactive based around diagnosis so it was a really great fit for my idea. The Infirmary Museum is an interactive exhibition at the University of Worcester’s City Campus combining history, science, art and technology to explore the medical stories of one of England’s oldest infirmaries.

What was the total development time and experience like for Diagnosis Doctor? What obstacles did you face, and what positive experiences can you take away from it?

The total development time was fairy short, I think about three or four months. The experience itself was very positive. I met with Harriet at the start and showed some examples of my projects (a mix of my professional work and personal projects) and got a feel for what the museum wanted to see.

Screenshot from Diagnosis Doctor. Courtesy of the Infirmary Museum https://medicalmuseum.org.uk/

The museum were keen to emphasize arcade elements with a high score table, etc., so I was able to focus my development around those aspects of the game. The real challenge with a project like this is streamlining the experience so it can be picked up and enjoyed by a first time player

Another experience you created was Noah's Ark. This actually predates some of your other projects. What was it like revisiting this older project to bring it to the internet?

It was really fun going back to my Noah's Ark interactive. As you mention, it was something I’d made years ago - only my 2nd project made with GDevelop. It was made during the pandemic when we were in lockdown most of the time so I had plenty of time to experiment with the engine. I remember having a lot of fun working out how to do sprite scaling with different sections containing my various attempts at the technique.

Picture of Noah's Ark. Courtesy of Herefordshire Museum Service https://www.herefordshire.gov.uk/history-lives

I was asked to make a version of the interactive to be played in a browser which meant adding touch contolls throughout (the original used push buttons) and optimizing the sound for online play. I though I may need to grab an old version of gdevelop as it had been years since I made the project and the engine has come on loads since then but I was able to edit it without issue. The only thing I ended up re-doing was some of the video playback controls which didn’t seem to work anymore.

What are the differences between working on a project for a museum exhibit like an arcade cabinet, and making that experience accessible and playable on the internet? What are the pros and cons of each medium?

I think the key difference between the two is the length of time you can expect the player to spend with the game. For public display you want something that is going to be in some way rewarding almost immediately. For public display you are also thinking about a very general audience many of who will never normally play games.

Screenshot of Noah's Ark. Courtesy of Hereford Museum https://www.herefordshire.gov.uk/history-lives

Why do you continue to use GDevelop? Would you recommend GDevelop as a tool for others to generate a source of income making games for clients, or do you believe your case to be a niche example?

I continue to use GDevelop because it meets my needs very well, and due to the open source nature of the project I feel confident building my work and business around using it as I know it’s not going anywhere.

Yes, I would recommend others use GDevelop in their work. There are lots of applications beyond the kind of gamey interactive experiences I build where I would use GDevelop over the alternatives. I have used GDevelop as a glorified video player choosing it over VLC or similar because it gave me complete control of the playback and the controls I gave the client access to. I would say for building any kind of multimedia experience give GDevelop a try.

Screenshot of Noah's Ark. Courtesy of Hereford Museum https://www.herefordshire.gov.uk/history-lives

What else are you working on, or have you worked on, that people can check out?

I’ve just been commissioned by the Infirmary Museum to make a new interactive based around infection and immune response due to go on display in June.

Aside from that I have a couple of personal projects on the go, hoping to get at least one of them on Steam this year. A gauntlet type game called Blood & Money which I think will be finished first and a caravan shooter called Stellar Pantomime, both made with GDevelop.

Blood and Money gameplay.

The best way to see what I’ve been working on is to check my Twitter account - @ParadiseMULTI, I’ll be posting work in progress stuff for all of my projects there.

Or you can check out my website - https://paradise-multimedia.co.uk for links to play some of my previous projects.

LINK TO PLAY DIAGNOSIS DOCTOR ONLINE -
https://medicalmuseum.org.uk/diagnosis-doctor

LINK TO PLAY NOAHS ARK ONLINE -
https://www.herefordshire.gov.uk/history-lives/inside