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# A Virtual Island of Algorithmically Generated Art Museums
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/a-virtual-island-of-algorithmically-generated-art-museums/
- Published: 2014-12-23T02:00:27.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T16:16:12.000Z
- Description: Manhattan may have an okay assortment of cultural institutions, but in Secret Habitat, a free game by Manchester-based indie video game developer Strangethink, users navigate an island that's home to 99 small museums.
- Author: Benjamin Sutton
- Tags: Art, Interactive, Review, Video Games, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-hidden, #Import 2025-11-24 07:08 (2014, 2015, part 2)

![One of the virtual museums in 'Secret Habitat' (all screenshots by the author for Hyperallergic)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2014/12/secret-habitat-images-7.jpg)

One of the virtual museums in ‘Secret Habitat’ (all screenshots by the author for Hyperallergic)

Manhattan may have an *okay* assortment of cultural institutions, but in [*Secret Habitat*](http://strangethink.itch.io/secret-habitat?ref=hyperallergic.com), a free game by Manchester-based indie video game developer [Strangethink](http://strangethink.com/?ref=hyperallergic.com), users navigate an island that’s home to 99 small museums. Their algorithmically generated buildings are filled with similarly populated exhibitions of glitchy abstract art.

The hallucinogenic game is set in a landscape whose soil is a gradient of neon blues and pinks — where leafless, turquoise trees sway like they’re made of Jell-O (or mimicking the movements of a [wacky waving inflatable flailing tube man](http://youtu.be/LOAfGKcLJUY?ref=hyperallergic.com)) and small pools of water glow a toxic-looking yellowish-green. The museum buildings are intensely sober and somber by comparison, with their slide-like ramps and heavy walls looking like a fantasy collaboration between Carsten Höller and Tadao Ando.

The exhibitions inside feature randomly generated wall art that ranges from smears of color *à la* Gerhard Richter to works that look like Wade Guyton’s inkjet printer works. Accompanying sound art pieces that users can toggle on and off in each gallery provide a similarly random, but often improbably complementary, accompaniment to the visuals. Perhaps most entertaining of all are the mad-lib titles, which often serve as the punchline to the visual joke of each successive mini-exhibition: a piece that looks like a garbled barcode is titled “Ill Stiff”; another that resembles a blurred version of a Monet lily pad painting is called “Behavior River.”

Exploring Secret Habitat’s surreal landscape and surprisingly believable randomized approximations of contemporary abstraction is a remarkably smooth experience. And, unlike most museums, all the exhibitions change every time you visit.

![A dramatic colonade in one of the virtual museums of 'Secret Habitat'](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2014/12/secret-habitat-images-6.jpg)

A dramatic colonade in one of the virtual museums of ‘Secret Habitat’

![The art of 'Secret Habitat'](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2014/12/secret-habitat-images-5.jpg)

The art of ‘Secret Habitat’

![The art of 'Secret Habitat'](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2014/12/secret-habitat-images-4.jpg)

The art of ‘Secret Habitat’

![The art of 'Secret Habitat'](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2014/12/secret-habitat-images-3.jpg)

The art of ‘Secret Habitat’

![A gallery in one of the virtual museums inside 'Secret Habitat'](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2014/12/secret-habitat-images-2.jpg)

A gallery in one of the virtual museums inside ‘Secret Habitat’

![An alley of virtual museums in 'Secret Habitat'](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2014/12/secret-habitat-images-1.jpg)

An alley of virtual museums in ‘Secret Habitat’

[Secret Habitat](http://strangethink.itch.io/secret-habitat?ref=hyperallergic.com) *can be downloaded for a price of your choosing* [*here*](http://strangethink.itch.io/secret-habitat?ref=hyperallergic.com)*.*

*h/t* [*Kotaku*](http://kotaku.com/a-game-that-creates-weird-alien-art-galleries-1673041917?ref=hyperallergic.com)