Silent Sands 1924

A narrative-driven, resource-management visual novel set in 1920s Cairo during the height of "Egyptomania." The player assumes the role of a local antiquities dealer caught between the financial reality of paying rent and the moral responsibility of preserving human history. Players appraise incoming artifacts and must choose whether to sell them to private black-market collectors for high profits or donate them to museums for world knowledge and prestige.

Archaeogaming Context

• The Indiana Jones Critique: Most video games treat ancient artifacts as "loot" (e.g., Tomb Raider, Uncharted). Silent Sands subverts this by making the commodification of the past the central conflict. It highlights how the Golden Age of Archaeology was heavily intertwined with grave robbing and colonialism.
• The Loss of Context: In archaeology, an object's physical context (where it was found, what it was next to) is far more important than the object itself. Your mechanic where selling an item changes its lore to [REDACTED - SOLD TO PRIVATE COLLECTOR] is a brilliant, playable representation of how the black market destroys archaeological data forever.
• Repatriation and Ownership: By including real-world items like the Rosetta Stone, the Elgin Marbles, and the Benin Bronzes, the game directly engages with ongoing, real-world repatriation debates. The player physically enacts the dispersal of cultural heritage.

Artifact Metadata Structure

The game relies on a rich, historical database to make the player's choices carry weight. Each artifact is an object containing mechanical stats and deep historical context:

• id: Unique identifier (e.g., "rosetta").
• name: The historical name of the item.
• icon: Visual representation (Emoji/Sprite).
• rarity: Categorization (Common, Uncommon, Rare, Legendary).
• lore: A brief, immersive description of the item.
• ethical: The real-world moral debate surrounding the item.
• discovered: When, where, and by whom it was excavated or looted.
• origin: The era and civilization it belongs to.
• museum: Where the real-world artifact is currently held.
• history: Deep-dive academic context about the item's significance.
• debate: The current geopolitical or cultural tension regarding its ownership.
• customer: The NPC attempting to buy/sell the item.
• sellVal / donateVal: The monetary rewards ($).
• knowledge: The percentage of global history preserved.
• reputationEffect: The social cost of selling it to the black market.
• canNegotiate: Boolean indicating if the item can be haggled over.