The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities

Pharos and heads of the Egyptian Museum:

Find the head.. Be the head !
Game

Designed
By
Lobna M. Deghedy

March 2015

Concept Document

Introduction

In the garden of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, visitors can see the
mausoleum where the body of Auguste Mariette, the first officially appointed
archeologist to tend to Egypts excavated treasures, finally lies. It is located on their
left hand side as they make their way across and past the 2nd check point to get to
the huge wooden doors and the entrance to the museums floor.
The mausoleum also houses the museums official heads; statues of the
appointed directors and heads of the Egyptian Antiquities Services, the
governments department established in 1858 by Khedive Said to attend to the
countrys incessant resurfacing treasures. Those distinguished appointed
individuals, who were all foreign in nationality during the early years of the
departments life; simultaneously became the directors and heads of the two
museums which housed the treasures excavated all around the country, until the
first Museum especially built for that purpose, and not transformed out of a palace
or religious or secular buildings, was founded; the now Egyptian Museum located
at Tahrir square in downtown Cairo.
Many key personalities are responsible for the history of the museum and its
foundation, from Egypts rulers, namely; Mohammad Ali, Khedive Abass I,
Khedive Said, Khedive Ismail and Khedive Tawfiq. And Egyptian and foreign
scholars and public figures and directors, namely; Auguste Mariette, Ali Mubarak,

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Concept Document

Heinrich Brugsch, Gaston Maspero, Rifaa Al-Tahtawi, Ahmad Lufti Al-Sayyid and
Ahmad Kamal.
Out of these distinguished individuals, two stand out in the story of creation
and history of the Egyptian Antiquities department and its overburdened and huge
Museum, the now Museum of Egyptian Antiquities and more commonly known as
the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.
The two individuals are:

Auguste Mariette: The Louvre curator and conservator officially dispatched

to Egypt in 1850. And the barer of many firsts; the first official archeologist in
Egypt, the first officially appointed head of the Antiquities Service (later the
Supreme Council of Antiquities) and the first government official in Egypt to
move to stop the trade of antiquities by law.
Ahmed Kamal: First Egyptian archeologist. Started his studies in Cairo,
Egypt in the first of Egyptology established in 1869 by Ali Mubarak and Heinrich
Brugsch. Which was later closed down by Mariette in the absence of Brugsch.
Ahmad Kamal later graduates in France in 1881 and become Egypts first
Egyptologist and assistant curator at the Egyptian Museum of Cairo when opened in
1902.
The story they play key roles in, is the story of the journey Egyptian
intellectuals and scholars went through, until very recently in history, in order to

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Concept Document

establish themselves as protectors of their own heritage and acknowledged as

Archeologist and Egyptologists worldwide.
Overview:
Find the head .. Be the head ! is a single and multiplayer puzzle game.
Focusing on treasure hunt techniques for phone applications. It focuses on immersing
the players into the realm of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo and its treasures of
artifacts and rare objects. Find the head .. Be the head ! aims at informing and
challenging players knowledge while being immersive and gripping.

Unique selling points (USPs)

Find the head .. Be the head ! is linked with the Egyptian Museum artifacts
with exclusive rights.
It focuses on touring the museum on site, an experience which no other
application can provide.
Find the head .. Be the head ! is designed specifically to highlight the
museums artifacts and provide a unique experience for the visitors to interact with
the objects and learn about their history, conservation and artistic styles and genres.
Adults and children, male and female, are the target audience for Find the
head .. Be the head !
The game is played on site at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.

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Concept Document

Genre
Find the head .. Be the head ! is a puzzle, treasure hunt, application which uses AR
and facial recognition technologies.

Platform
Find the head .. Be the head ! is an application for Apple and Android systems.

Key features:
Find the head .. Be the head ! will make touch screen and educational games
exciting and magical more than ever, it will satisfy your hunger for adventure and keep
you wanting for more, through puzzles and action that will take museum experiences
and interactivity to new boundaries.

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Concept Document

Description and style

Find the head .. Be the head ! is an educational puzzle and treasure hunt
game with AR and facial recognitions features.
This games universe is the Egyptian Museum, you will experience a tour of the
highlights of the museum artifacts, and the different statues and their heads, you will
collect clues of facial features and cartouches out of many other details, to help you
solve puzzles that would lead you to the next object you will learn about and explore
closely.
The Player Characters (PCs) that you are playing with is amongst different options of
some historic scholarly and public figures in addition to young and old generic male
and female personas. And the Non Player Characters (NPCs) are Ahmad Pasha
Kamal and August Mariette. Each play a role in giving you words of encouragement
or challenge you in addition to giving you some tips and clues to challenge you but
also keep you moving forward.

Auguste Mariette: The Louvre curator and conservator First archeologist in

Egypt to stop the trade of antiquities and head of the Service dAntiquite
Ambitious and lively, but snob and obstacle maker. He deems anyone unworthy of
a new find and very protective of the collection.
Ahmed Kamal: First Egyptian archeologist and Egyptologist. Started his
studies in Cairo, Egypt in the first of Egyptology established in 1869 by Ali Mubarak
and Heinrich Brugsch. Which was later closed down by Mariette in the absence of

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Concept Document

Brugsch. He is quiet and determined, helpful and supportive. And encouraging and

scholarly.
Before the gam takes place Ahmad Kamal and Mariette had their conflict of
interest where Kamal is venturing into the world of Egyptology as the first Egyptian
scholar to do so, and Mariette with all of his great work and contribution to the
preserving of the countrys archeological treasures, feels threatened and skeptical of
the national interest in the field. The game ends when you collect the clues and solve
the puzzles to find which head of statue and artifact of the collection to find to collect
a high score. This is when you will have your picture taken and a bust will be created
for you and added to the Mariettes mausoleum next to the heads of the former
directors of the Egyptian Antiquities Museum.
Find the head .. Be the head ! creates a mood of light and mystery with thrill and
fun.
The story provides a backdrop of the true story which relates to the foundation
of the museum and the key roles of the real individuals that are represented as PCs
and NPCs. This provides you as a visitor of a unique interactive learning experience as
well as a unique and interactive museum experience and a closer connection to the
artifacts and the story of their collection, preservation and exhibition.
The story relates to the target groups, male and female, young and old. And so
Find the head .. Be the head ! is a game that ambitiously aims to appeal to a wide

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Concept Document

range of visitors gender and age. Also the story aims to relate to local and
international visitors and players from different nationalities.

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