Hanna Steinhauer - Temple of Philae

Overview

‘Temple of Philae’ is a 2D side-scroller for PC immersed in ancient Egyptian mythology telling the story of Gamal, a boy who sacrifices his humanity in order to become a god. The divine sisters Isis and Nephthys are his constant guides and narrate the story.

Concept art for the deities Maat, Isis, Nephthys, and Anubis made by one of our game artists.

Gameplay Video for Temple of Philae.

Temple of Philae – The Project

For this assignment we were given a narrative and an emotion to work with.

Narrative: The baby’s blood type? Human, mostly.

Emotion: Desire

The player experiences the game through the eyes of Gamal, an arrogant young farmer boy who has been fed lies about his true origins for his entire life by his narcissistic mother. He believes himself to be a half-god, brought to his family by the goddess Isis. Upon turning 14, he leaves his family to seek out his favourite deity and ask her to become a real god.

The player has to fight their way through the ancient temple as Gamal by solving puzzles, destroying obstacles, and escaping spike traps. Each hall in the temple is dedicated to an Egyptian god or goddess. To reach their final destination, the chamber of Isis, the player has to collect symbolic artefacts that give them divine appearance and power.

The player has to decide between taking their time to overcome the obstacles or skipping them entirely by destroying most of the temple, including its pieces of art and divine statues which are believed to be materialized gods and goddesses. The sacrifices they have to make grow ever crueller. Nephthys, pretending to be her twin sister Isis, incites the player to go even further after each act of destruction. In the end, they need to decide between their reckless ambition and Gamal’s dysfunctional, but caring family.

Temple of Philae – A Video Timeline

For the first pitch presentation, I made a short ripomatic in order to introduce our audience to the atmosphere and feel of our project.

After four weeks of work, we held the intermediate presentation, for which I made a short gameplay video. I emphasized the determined and mysterious nature that the game is supposed to display in the beginning.

For the final presentation, I created another gameplay video showcasing our latest additions and improvements. This time, I highlighted the desperate, almost frantic feel that predominates the later stages of the game.