Heir of Giza Video Game Concept

Story and Title

Heir of Giza takes place during the Old Kingdom of Ancient Egypt. It is a souls-like game with heavy RPG elements and story driven gameplay. The plot is as follows:

The great pharaoh, Khufu, is dead. Mysteriously, his high priest vanished during his mummification rituals, and has not been seen or heard from since. During the mourning of your father, Osiris (the god of the dead) reveals to you that Khufu's soul never made it to the Duat (the afterlife).

Instead, his high priest appeared, and has been wreaking havoc in the name of Set (the god of war, chaos, and storms), corrupting the very fibers of the realm. Will you, as Khufu's second-born, reclaim the Duat for Osiris and restore your father's soul to peace? Returning to your life on the surface afterwards, never to be pharaoh? Or will you take Set's power for yourself, and claim your place in the afterlife as the Heir of Giza?

Drawing inspiration from souls (and souls-like) games, I explored various formats for the game logo. My initial thought was to include pyramid imagery, but the idea proved to create a clunky silhouette. I chose 2D as the flow of the sand-like design behind the text created interesting movement while maintaining a simple visual.

Armor Designs

I wanted to include both female and male armor options throughout the project, as it was intended for the player to be able to customize their character and choose their fighting style (which is what the armor types and weapons correspond with).

Both light armor sets focus on animal hides and linens, allowing for faster movement. Each armor page pulls heavy inspiration from Egyptian gods, animals, and color palettes.

The medium armor sets (while not a "real" category in games) are a blend between light and heavy armor sets, focusing on lighter metals (gold primarily) and scaled pieces paired with linens. 

Again I focused on utilizing Egyptian iconography within each piece, drawing inspiration from gods like Bastet, Khnum, and Set. When I didn't use the gods as inspiration, I delved into sarcophagus designs and interesting silhouettes.

The heavy armor sets focus on using dense, heavy metals (or even stone) to allow the player to have a high defense rating at the cost of speed. Great-weapons are paired with each design.

Main Character

Explorations of a set from the Female Heavy Armor page and the Male Medium Armor page. 

Weapons

Pulling from the armor sets, each weapon is a final design for what the player could use based on their preferred playstyle. Each weapon has specific inspirations from hieroglyphs, iconography, and actual weapons used by the Egyptians during the Old Kingdom period. 

Egyptian Gods

The gods play a narrative role in the overall arc of the game. Osiris tasks the player with a holy mission while Set works behind the scenes to corrupt and take control of the Duat (afterlife).

Osiris is the god of the dead. I imagined him being in an "undead" state, not entirely alive but not entirely dead. His poignant hat is made from a rib cage, and chin strap from an ulna and radius.

Set is the god of war, chaos, and storms. Rather than wearing a pharaoh-like linen headpiece, I imagined him with a storm cloaking his head, constantly billowing.

These gods cater to game mechanics rather than narrative.

Aset (also known as Isis) is the goddess of healing and magic. The health potions provided to the player by Aset come in the form of canopic jars. I combined different iconography of Aset to create her head design: she has cow horns and ears (attached to her head), while wearing a snake/bird headdress.

Thoth is the god of writing, wisdom, and magic. Thoth acts as a tutorial, offering aid with UI pop ups, especially at the beginning of the game.

Enemies

The main antagonist of the game, the high priest is driven by Set to take control of the Duat at the cost of Khufu's soul.

I reintroduced Set's storm and lightning imagery with the priest, focusing on the idea of madness caused by great power.

An exploration of enemy types the player will encounter throughout the game. Corrupted souls, appearing as mummies, can summon their own (corrupted) shabtis during battle to aid them.

Before entering a boss arena, the player can summon their own shabti to fight beside them by using a Summoning Obelisk. 

A boss or mini-boss the player (shown for scale) may fight. In mythology, Ammit takes part in the judging of a person's soul before they are allowed to enter the Duat. Here she is seen corrupted by Set's magic, and is bent on the player's destruction.

In Game Concepts

An attempt at photo-bashing in order to visualize the player being tasked with their mission by Osiris at the beginning of the game. The main character is kneeling facing Osiris, who has appeared during the character's visit to their father's (Khufu) tomb.

Drawing inspiration from existing souls games, I created a concept of the main menu of Heir of Giza.