Keeper of Paintings | Michelle Collier

The Keeper of Paintings

Role

Scriptwriter, narrative designer, game writer

Client

The National Gallery

Creative studio

Arcade XR

Project categories

Mobile AR game, Roblox, immersive experience, location-based app, arts, culture, heritage & learning

About the project

I was the Lead Writer and Narrative Designer for The Keeper of Paintings – a suite of narrative adventure games created by Arcade XR for The National Gallery.

Aimed at 7–11-year-olds, the games engage players with the gallery's art collections through a story-led world of puzzles, magical portals, digital creativity and immersive gameplay.

There are three titles in the Keeper of Paintings world so far across mobile AR and Roblox.

The Keeper of Paintings & The Palette of Perception

Mobile AR game, narrative adventure, learning puzzles, location-based gameplay

As the Lead Writer & Narrative Designer across all three titles, I collaborated with Arcade to develop the game mechanics, play flow and story world, as well script all of the in-game copy. This included: character dialogue, puzzles and learning challenges, special powers and inventory items, kid-friendly artwork info, onboarding sequences and UX copy.

I also created playable prototypes for testing (using Typeform) and maintained game documentation, including a complex branching script document and a detailed game bible.

Example in-game content

Screenshot from the Keeper of Paintings game app showing an animated story portal.

Screenshot from the Keeper of Paintings game app showing a Keeper Card with an in-person challenge for the player.

Screenshot from the Keeper of Paintings game app showing the palette of perception gem collection mechanic.

Screenshots from the Keeper of Paintings game app showing various character dialogue.

Screenshot from the Keeper of Paintings game app showing the Keeper's Almanack.

Screenshot from the Keeper of Paintings game app showing the Keeper Chronicle newspaper object.

Screenshot from the Keeper of Paintings game app showing a Chinese Lantern riddle.

The Keeper of Paintings AR app was the first of its kind launched by The National Gallery. It was created with and for children, to excite them about heritage art collections. As well as collaborating with 80+ children and teams at The National Gallery, the project was also part of a wider collaboration with StoryFutures, Royal Holloway University of London and Brunel University of London.