Gamers set to

● V&A show billed as the first to be devoted to the modern era of videogames

It is already one of the world’s biggest entertainment industries.

Now a major new exhibition at Dundee’s V&A museum is set to show how videogames are tackling some of the most hotly-debated issues around the planet.

The show, which opens on Saturday, is set to captivate gaming fans with everything from original sketches, designs and storyboards to giant video walls and a specially-created 21st century amusement arcade.

But Videogames: Design/ Play/disrupt also explores how game designers are increasingly addressing concerns over gun-related violence, environmental waste, objectification of women, child exploitation, sex education, body image and racism.

The five-month exhibition, which covers innovations in videogaming over the last 15 years, explores how the advent of new technology has led to the “democraticisation” of the industry by making it much easier to design and play games over that period.

Leading industry experts are heard giving their views on how it has tackled concerns over racism, sexism and encouraging violence – and what still needs to be done.

The V&A show, billed as the first ever exhibition devoted to the modern era of videogames, features insights into the creation of some of the most groundbreaking games in the modern era, such as Minecraft, Splatoon, The Last of Us and No Man’s Sky, looks at the growing links between videogames and film, TV, fashion and even nightclubbing.

The exhibition was originally created for the V&A in London last year, but has been overhauled and expanded for its run in Dundee, where it will be accompanied by a specially themed “Tay Lates” event next month, as well as a gaming conference, talks and workshops.

The exhibition features a specially-created mural commissioned from Glasgowbased illustrator Ursula Kamling Cheng, whose “colourful and chaotic” work, entitled Girl Evader, is inspired by virtual worlds.

Dundee’s track record in gaming, which is best known