Two Point Museum iterates and innovates on this unique management-sim series

Two Point Museum goes all-in on its theme and creates innovative gameplay as a result

Two Point Museum / Two Point Studios

When Two Point Hospital first launched, it was a very clear homage to management sims of old – namely Theme Hospital – but in the years since, with Two Point Campus and now Two Point Museum, the team has shown that they have strong creative muscles of their own and can innovate on the genre they love so much.

Two Point Museum has a unique gameplay loop compared to the previous games in the series, as money is no longer the biggest limiting factor for the expansion of your museum. Instead, it’s the exhibits that limit your progress, as you can’t just conjure them out of thin air. You have to hire your experts and send them off all over the world on expeditions to recover ancient artifacts to display.

Speaking to executive producer Jo Koehler and design director Ben Huskins, that idea of exploration is what locked in museums as the perfect theme for the next Two Point game.

Two Point Museum / Two Poinnt Studios

“The thing I love about going to a museum is not knowing what you’re going to see in the next room,” Huskins says. “We wanted to capture that feeling that a visitor might have in a museum where you’re managing it, as you don’t know what you’re going to find when you go on an expedition.

“We really like the idea of building up an awesome thing, but not being able to just buy everything. In previous games, money is the limiting factor – so in [Two Point Hospital] you can just chuck down as many treatment rooms as you can afford – we really like this idea of not being able to do that. You have to build up these collections by going on expeditions, so you feel quite attached to your collection and it’s a good feeling when you find rare things.”

Even in just the Prehistoric theme that I got to see there is an expansive expedition map with a large variety of locations. Each one branches out with different paths, letting you explore in any direction you want, with each new location being unlocked by hitting different milestones in your museum. They keep feeding into each other this way, as what you choose to focus on will determine where you can explore for bigger and better exhibits.

Two Point Museum / Two Point Studios

“We really wanted to push towards people having unique experiences and being able to create unique spaces,” Koehler explains. “With the museum, we have a compelling and exciting game loop with the expeditions, but we worked quite hard on the creative side of the museum and laying out your spaces. All those tools we’ve added in that weren’t in the previous game like extendable walls, archways, and new floor types. We worked really hard on the lighting because in museums the lighting and how things are laid out are so important to the overall feel of the experience.

“What we’re seeing now with all the different elements, is players have loads of opportunities to create something unique. You go on different expeditions and explore the world differently.”

“Everyone’s going to have a slightly different collection of things that they find,” Huskins adds. “But even if two people find the same things, they can lay them out and channel the visitors through completely differently.”

From my brief time with the game, this rings true. Looking at what the other journalists trying out the game had created, no two museums looked the same. It’s doubly impressive considering this was just the first level in the game, where you’re much more railroaded by tutorials than usual.

Two Point Museum / Two Point Studios

It’s not just about grabbing the exhibits and placing them down though, you still need to make your museum engaging to your visitors. That means you need to balance education and entertainment with each of your exhibits. You’re highly encouraged to place lots of decorations around each exhibit to increase its buzz and entertainment, while features like information boards feed off nearby exhibits to educate guests.

You have to cater to multiple types of guests though. Kids aren’t going to be interested in lots of signs explaining things, so for them to learn you need to create interactive exhibits and dot them around your museum with enough frequency that kids don’t get bored.

Making money is still an integral part of the process too – you’ve gotta keep the doors open somehow, and that’s been integrated into the design of your museum. First of all, what would a museum be without a gift shop? That alone has lots of creative potential. On top of that, you can strategically place donation bins near all your exhibits, encouraging patrons to throw you a little extra cash for all your hard work.

Two Point Museum / Two Point Studios

That touch of Two Point humor is still just as sharp as ever too, and Museum further integrates it mechanically. On an expedition, I discovered a frozen Neanderthal to place in my museum, but I didn’t keep it cold enough so the ice melted and he started running around the place causing chaos.

Where in Two Point Hospital the gags were just on the surface, like a funny disease name or sarcastic comments from the PA lady, Two Point Museum actually makes it a part of the gameplay, with consequences for mismanagement – the sarcastic PA lady is still in the game though, I even got to meet her.

“We have elements that are grounded in reality – fossils, dinosaur bones – but it was a great opportunity to put in the larger-than-life elements that you might expect from a Two Point game,” Huskins says. “We always want to ground it in reality because if everything’s over the top and quirky, then nothing feels like it.”

Two Point Museum / Two Point Studios

“We quite often lean into the retro vibe as well,” Koehler explains. “When we come up with these ideas we’re not trying to think of a funny thing. Sometimes it’ll start with a pun and then that turns into an animation, or sometimes it’s the art that guides it, but we’re not trying to be too over-the-top. We just want it to feel light-hearted, wholesome, and fun.”

This philosophy leads to a management title that feels like nothing else on the market. Not only in terms of the overall tone with fun ideas that serve as both memorable jokes and mechanical challenges, but in how the team has carefully considered what goes into making museums feel special. They’ve created a set of robust systems that bring out the joy of discovery, education, and design that comes with exploring the weird and wonderful corners of our world.