How we co-created the Secret Shelter Challenge game

In January 2022, Musemio, an award-winning immersive learning platform for children, and London Transport Museum were proud to launch a new, fun, virtual reality (VR) game that helps children experience life in Clapham South deep-level shelter during the Second World War. Players are teleported back in time to 1944 after a plea for help from Mio, Musemio’s favourite robot mascot. The game was co-designed by children, for children aged 8-11 with a curious and open mind.

Early in 2021, London Transport Museum’s Hidden London team began working with Musemio’s creatives to imagine how the stories of Clapham South subterranean shelter could be brought to life. The narrative designs were based on historic interviews with young inhabitants of the deep-level shelter and that’s how Margaret, one of the game’s main characters, came to life to represent many of the real children that lived in deep-level shelters during the Second World War.

The Museum’s Hidden London experts and Learning team collaborated with Musemio to bring this important wartime history to life. Historic photos and videos of the shelter allowed the Musemio team to recreate the space in a 3D environment, maintaining the overall atmosphere of the shelter.

After years of building games for kids, the Musemio team knew that the key to making an exciting story that captivates children’s imagination was to design it together with kids.

London Transport Museum and Musemio invited 12 children to participate in the narrative creation process that resulted in an array of unexpected characters taking over the story. Children pointed out that there were probably mice and rats in the shelter. However, they decided that rats would have been a bit too scary, so only the lovely Queen Mouse became a character to accompany the players on their mission.

Grumpy Teddy was brought to life after the children found out that people who stayed in the shelter at night had to take their belongings with them in the morning. One of our little creators asked what happened if you forgot your favourite toy when packing in a hurry? Although we will never know the answer to this question, it would explain Grumpy Teddy’s grumpiness.

After completing the script, Musemio took further steps towards co-creation. Margaret’s character was voiced and motion-captured (a technique to capture a person’s mimics and map them to the 3D character face) by one of Musemio’s most passionate supporters, 10-year-old Jess. As we were recording, Jess suggested several changes to the script to make sure that Queen Mouse “sounds royal” and Grumpy Teddy “is not too grumpy”.

After almost a year in the making, we were thrilled to launch our co-created VR game, which makes the intriguing Clapham South deep-level shelter virtually accessible to children for the first time. This unique historical real-world space is not currently accessible to children under 13 due to the challenging nature of the site, with almost a mile of ‘lost’ tunnels, many steps and dark and dusty passages. 

It has been a privilege to work with London Transport Museum and the Hidden London team to  create a truly unique cultural experience for children. There are many more stories to be told and cultural doors to unlock, and we look forward to continuing to connect the excellent expertise of professionals in the arts & heritage sector, and the beautiful imagination of young minds.

Secret Shelter Challenge: time-travel deep undeground is available within the Musemio app, which you can download on Google Play and Apple Store.