Two Point Museum is on the horizon, with a scheduled release date for March 2025. The humorous museum management sim from the same developers behind Two Point Hospital and Two Point Campus, takes a new approach to the series with several changes to the gameplay mechanics. From how players will complete expeditions to obtain exhibits to the manner of displaying them in the more open style of a museum, Two Point Museum gives a lot more flexibility for everyone to play the way they want to.

Recently, Screen Rant was able to take part in a short hands-on preview of Two Point Museum and then chat with two of the developers at Two Point Studios. Executive Producer Jo Koehler, and Design Director Ben Huskins sat down to answer a few questions regarding the inspiration behind the game and how it differs from the previous titles. Although there is still much that will be announced in the coming months before Two Point Museum's launch, they touched on many of the concerns that the community has had, including how it will feature more management aspects and how its sandbox mode will have greater value.

The Inspiration And Idea Behind Creating Two Point Museum

So Much Flexibility And Freedom For Players To Enjoy Customizing Their Space

Screen Rant: I absolutely love the game. I'm a huge fan of all the Two Point games and Theme Hospital back in the day and everything. What was the inspiration or the planning process that led to the idea of doing a museum-themed sim?

Ben Huskins, Design Director: Yeah. So, when we first started thinking about the next game, I mean, we had a few ideas on the list. And I think what really got us attached to the idea of a museum was a couple of things. One was it felt like there's not really anything like it out there, and it felt like we can really put our own unique stamp on this and make something that really is quite unique.

But then also, there's a couple of aspects of the game that we felt, oh, we can really kind of take them in an interesting direction. One of those being this sense of exploration and discovery that you get from the expedition system. We kind of felt like it naturally fits with museum as a concept that you know you can't just buy everything in the museum.

The way that you acquire your exhibits is that you have to go out and collect them, and you go and explore these maps, and you send off teams of staff from your museum to go and discover these things. And that we loved this idea of that anticipation around what they might find like not quite knowing exactly what they were going to discover and then as you build up your collection, then obviously, the museum side of 'where do I want to put these things in the museum.' Like, what are my showcase pieces, how do I want to lay things out, and how do I really sort of fine tune that guest experience and that guest journey with all the new creative tools.

This sense of exploration and discovery that you get from the expedition system. We kind of felt like it naturally fits with museum as a concept that you know you can't just buy everything in the museum. - Ben Huskins

Jo Koehler, Executive Producer: It felt like a really natural way to drill down into the creative tools. So, you know, museums are just incredible looking spaces. We were sort of thinking, 'Yeah, we can replicate that in our game' and alongside the exploration discovery, it's the kind of the visual side of like, how does it look? How does it feel? We did a bunch of new creative tools like the color picker, the placeables, like archways, decorative items, and the lighting system, which is brand new for this game. So you can make incredible looking spaces.

Ben Huskins: Yeah, so obviously, the previous games were very much based around rooms: classrooms, diagnosis, treatment rooms, that sort of thing. And we love the idea that with Museum, we're moving away from that, and it's more about this free-form building of a space. And, you know, you can section up that space however you want to, you can have big open areas with all of your exhibits visible, or you can create corridors and channel people through gift shops and cafés and then past all of your best exhibits. Really, there's a lot of scope for experimentation there and people trying out different layouts, which we've got quite excited about.

Jo Koehler: Yeah, and you know, everyone's space looks really unique.

Exhibits And Museum Variety In Two Point Museum

Many Will Be Announced In Coming Months

Screen Rant: I love the freedom that it gives to decorating, and I'm excited to see all the creativity that people have. How many different types of museums and expeditions and things will there be? Such as the prehistoric, marine, all of those? Or can you say at this point?

Ben Huskins: So we probably can't like say a specific number at this point, because we've got some that we want to reveal over the next couple of months. But there are a lot of exhibits in the game. I don't know if you saw the sticker book when you were playing. Yeah, that obviously shows you that's your collection of all the exhibits and obviously we add to that over time. So as you discover new features in the game and new exhibits or encounter new types of guests that visit your museums they all get added to the sticker book.

Jo Koehler: I think it's fair to say as well that the additional themes that we will reveal over the next few months, they're just as big and interesting as the themes that you've seen already, like with broad gameplay twists.

Ben Huskins: Yeah, I think our approach to the exhibits is with each new theme, we want it to have a unique selling point to each theme and not only be visually distinct and interesting, but have those gameplay twists and make you think about how you're running your museum in a different way. So there are, you know, quite a few different maps to find, and then you can spend a lot of time exploring those maps.

Then, we've structured the game so that you're always revisiting each of your museums, which is quite a change from the previous games where you would quite often get to three stars and then feel like you were done at that location, whereas in Museum we've structured the game around always having a reason to go back. So, what we find is that people get more attached to their museums, both their collection of exhibits, but also their staff that they've been developing over time. Then also just that layout right all that time that you've spent noodling around with partition walls and the flooring tool and the color picker or decorative items. It feels worthwhile because you know that you're going to come back to that museum, and it feels like your own thing. You have that sense of ownership over it.

It feels worthwhile because you know that you're going to come back to that museum, and it feels like your own thing. You have that sense of ownership over it. - Ben Huskins

Screen Rant: I was going to ask about that. With bouncing back and forth to the new museums and then bouncing back to previous museums, how will that be handled later in the game? Are there going to potentially be numerous museums that you're handling at once? Or are you just sticking with like three or four that you're bouncing back and forth between?

Ben Huskins: So you'll have that collection of museums that you're gradually building up, and we also have a different type of museum in the game that you won't have seen yet, which is, we call them pop-up museums. And those are a bit of a change of pace, so those are more like a place where you can experiment with what you've unlocked so far and what you've learned so far, try out a slightly different strategy with a particular goal in mind.

Those are quite cool because it's a bit of a palate cleanser. It's like, oh I can go here for half an hour or an hour to try doing this challenge museum, and then you know you'll unlock some stuff through that, and then you can take that back to one of your major museums. You know, the major museums, those are the persistent ones that you keep coming back to.

And we tried to keep it manageable, so you know obviously there's always that point where you jump back to a museum, and you're trying to , like 'what did I do last time I was here.' So we try and give you that information so that you have a recap on what's happening.

You know when you unlock a new bit of story in a museum we'll get a nice little cutscene that just tees up the next section. You've always got those things that carry across between all of the museums as well, so all of your progress in the maps carries across. Things like the analysis, so your knowledge that you're building up. The exhibits, that carries across as well, and the sticker book as well.

Management Content In Two Point Museum Will Be Different Than Two Point Campus

Offering A Balance In Features To Always Provide Something To Do

Screen Rant: I know with Two Point Campus a lot of people felt like it didn't have quite enough of the management content to do during the school year for the campus. And it feels like Museum has gone much deeper into all of those kinds of things for giving players a whole bunch of things to focus on. What are some of those different management focuses, and how do you balance having enough for players to think about while not becoming just overwhelming?

Jo Koehler: That is a challenge. I think we spend a lot of time on the kind of onboarding for our players. We do a lot of iterative work over the course of the entire development, getting from players during beta testing, VIP press events, you know, things like this, as well. I think, you know, not overwhelming players, as you say, it's really deep. It's, you know, there's lots of features in there.

I think it's designed in a way as well that for the players who enjoy those features can interact with them, but if players are more into the decorative side, the creative, they don't necessarily need to interact with all those more deep management features. - Jo Koehler

Ben Huskins: Yeah, we've intentionally tried to add a lot of that management depth and those kind of extra tools, whether it's being able to tweak the prices of everything or dive into event logs or graphs and that kind of thing. Things like staff zoning, its is something that I think we've nearly done in both of the previous games and then never quite got around to it. But like, yeah, now you can lay out separate zones in the museum and assign staff to them. And, you know, that's something that we've been keen to do for a while.

Jo Koehler: I think it's designed in a way as well that for the players who enjoy those features can interact with them, but if players are more into the decorative side, the creative, they don't necessarily need to interact with all those more deep management features.

Ben Huskins: Yeah, we kind of internally talk about it as kind of accessibility with depth. So, you know, our kind of primary concern is we don't want people to feel overwhelmed when they start playing this game. We want everyone to be able to pick it up and play it and just gradually ease people in. And really, we have players who, they might be a bit more casual or are just not used to playing management sim games. It's like the gateway management sim game in a way where within a few hours they're suddenly finding themselves tinkering with prices of everything in the gift shop and deciding which jobs they want their staff to do. Things that they wouldn't have expected themselves to get into.

But then we've also got for the more advanced sim players, they can scratch that itch when they're ready for it. When they want to start optimizing, and you know, finding those efficient strategies for how to play.

It's like the gateway management sim game in a way where within a few hours they're suddenly finding themselves tinkering with prices of everything in the gift shop. - Ben Huskins

Screen Rant: I know there's also a sandbox mode. I don't know if it was available in the version I tried because I was focusing on the main part, but how much will people be able to tweak the sandbox mode? Is it just going to be where when you go in the sandbox, you have everything available and unlimited money, or how much flexibility is there?

Ben Huskins: Yes, the sandbox, actually, we've taken a slightly different approach to it in this game. I think we've kind of made it a lot more interesting in this game. And in Hospital and Campus, sandbox mode was very much just it take one map and, you know, you decide the settings, but then you're just playing that one map. Whereas in Museum, the sandbox mode, it mirrors the structure of the campaign a bit more.

So in the same way that in the campaign, you start with one museum, and then you establish a second museum and then a third one and so on. You can do that in sandbox mode as well. And you have that same exploration of the maps, adding to the sticker books, learning more about the exhibits to get your enlightenment and knowledge up.

We don't just unlock everything. You still have settings that you can tweak with sandbox mode so you can. Money and kudosh. So, if you want to have an easier, more relaxed experience, you can do that in sandbox, but you can also tweak the dial the other way and ramp up the crime rates. So it's like, oh, my God, I'm just getting bombarded with these.

Jo Koehler: It's a bit more like difficulty. You can make your experience rock hard, or if you're like me, nice and easy and give myself a million pounds.

Ben Huskins: Yeah, yeah, exactly. So it's very flexible, but also it's closer match to the campaign. So, you know, you can really experiment with sandbox mode and play it in quite interesting ways.

Screen Rant: That sounds fun. I like that. Okay, I think we're already running out of time, so I'm just going to be really quick and throw one more in here, if you are able to answer it at this point. Will there be a Switch port or for the Switch successor? And also, is Two Point Museum going to be Steam Deck compatible?

Jo Koehler: Yes, it's Steam Deck compatible. We've got nothing more to announce right now for future platforms and such, but we'll be sure to share as soon as we can.

Source: Two Point Studios/YouTube