Archives at Risk: WispfireArchives at Risk: Wispfire

The development of a game involves an extensive design process that often remains invisible. Game designers develop storylines, characters, levels with great care and bring these elements together into an interactive audiovisual narrative. What is known about this process and what does an archive of a game look like? In collaboration with Sound & Vision, the NADD shows the archive of Herald, the first Dutch game whose development process is archived.

Herald is an indie game (short for independent game, a game made by a small-scale game studio) designed and developed by Utrecht-based game studio Wispfire. It is a choice-based adventure game where the player finds themselves in an alternate 19th century, which in this storyline refers to the Dutch colonial history. The player faces moral questions, and their choices determine how the game and narrative will unfold.

The archive contains materials from various stages of the game development: the research phase includes important sources for drafting storylines and creating sketches of characters, ships and spaces. The production phase includes recordings of voice actors, animations in different stages, (digital) props, as well as the game itself. Documenting the development of a game and building an archive is a part of the process that lacks awareness, even within the game industry. With Seeking Shelter, the NADD and network partner Sound & Vision aim to shed light on this, showing that a game and its archive are equally important and should be considered as cultural heritage.

Archives at Risk: Seeking Shelter is curated by Annemartine van Kesteren (Curator Design at Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum) and designed by spatial designer Ben Shamier.

The installation is on view at Sound & Vision in Hilversum until October 20 and is free to visit during the museum’s opening hours.

Sound & Vision is the institute for media culture; an inspiring, creative and accessible meeting place for private individuals and professionals. It interprets current developments concerning people, media and society from a media-historical perspective.

Sound & Vision does this as a Media Museum, as a knowledge institute and as an educational partner. By using their collection, it shows people how media have evolved in (recent) history, follow current developments and respond to new media phenomena.

In 2021, the organisations that look after design heritage in the Netherlands joined forces to become the Network for Archives of Design and Digital Culture (NADD). The network makes designers’ archives digitally accessible, and shares knowledge about archiving. The goal is twofold: to show the value of this heritage for society and to find a sustainable solution for preserving and managing these archives.

NADD consists of forty-five partners: including large and small heritage institutions, designers, professional organisations, educational institutions, and experts in the field of design.