Ancient Egypt has baffled, fascinated and eluded the world's greatest minds for centuries, and now gamers get to wonder at this archaic civilization too, via the easily digestible medium of the videogame. The new title in question is called The Shadow of Aten, and is being created for the and by Silicon Garage Arts. The game is set in 1930s Egypt, a time of great excitement surrounding the new discoveries there, and stars the Indiana Jones-esque Allan Scott. Scott will be visiting Cairo, Luxor, the valley of the Kings, the Fayum oasis and other exotic locales on a journey into Egypt's past inspired by true history.

A mammoth fifty-hour singleplayer game is mooted, and combat will be of the hand to hand free-form variety, employing chairs, bottles and other props in the traditional manner. The gameplay itself is said to be a mix of puzzling, fighting, chasing and driving (including camels!) and even platforming - and could be fun if all these elements can be gelled successfully.

The game's story will focus on the true history of the God Aten, the beginnings of belief in one god apparently, and will include lashings of true research. Complimenting this interesting plot concept is a library of data on ancient Egypt, compiled with the help of the History channel and the Louvre gallery, Paris. Said archive will explain much of the background to the game and its story, which could be interesting.

More word on this soon, including a publisher and/or a release date. We hope.

By Luke Guttridge