The art of play
We review games of chance the way we once reviewed theatre and exhibitions: for their images, their sound, their rooms and the craft behind them.
Four ways in
Every section asks the same question: what is the artist doing here, and does it work?
Game Art & Visuals
Illustration, animation and colour in slot games, read like any other gallery piece.
Read reviews →Slot Audio
Composers and sound designers on the chimes, loops and silences that shape play.
Listen in →Casino Architecture NZ
From the Sky Tower to Christchurch’s city centre: the buildings, lights and interiors.
Take the tour →Playing Card History
Court cards, card backs and the printers and illustrators who drew them.
Open the deck →Why games, why here
Art Murmurs began in Wellington as a place for honest, close reviews of theatre, exhibitions and performance. That habit of looking hard at a made thing is what we bring to a new subject.
Games of chance are one of the most widely seen art forms in Aotearoa, and one of the least reviewed. Thousands of illustrators, animators, composers and architects work on them. We think their work deserves criticism, not just marketing copy.
We write about craft. We don’t rank casinos, and we don’t tell anyone to play.
Latest murmurs
New features: buildings, cards and the design of the machine.
Sky Tower Auckland: how a wine glass became a 328 m needle
Gordon Moller’s sketch, a climbing rig on mudstone and the casino bid behind Auckland’s silhouette.
ArchitectureChristchurch Casino: New Zealand’s first, from quake to 2026 sale
A Warren and Mahoney building, 93 dark days in 2011 and a licence tied to one address.
ArchitectureCasinos in NZ: an architecture guide to all five
From an 1883 Dunedin hotel to a 1940 post office, and the Queenstown room that went dark.
Playing CardsKing of hearts: how a 1567 axe became the suicide king
Copyists lost his axe, his moustache and his name. What the Rouen pattern tells us.
Game ArtPokies: why the name, and the design behind the cabinet
From the Liberty Bell to the near miss and the sound of a loss dressed as a win.