Ancient Quest of Saqqarah

Saqqarah is a vast, deep and beautiful puzzle game set in the wondrous world of ancient Egyptian secrets, powerful gods and magical monkeys. With quality and variety surpassing everything you've seen in casual games, Saqqarah is a memorable and exciting adventure for everyone.

Once every thousand years a mysterious eclipse shrouds the ancient pyramid of Saqqarah. With help of Khufu - the Magical Monkey from the Underground Oasis, solve over 500 challenging puzzles spread across 7 different temples and restore mysterious powers of ancient Egypt in this rich and original matching game.

Deep and varied gameplay, hundreds of levels, outstanding visuals, captivating music, many trophies to collect and lively voice-acting all make Saqqarah our biggest and most ambitious game so far. A game that we're sure you'll enjoy a lot and for a long time!

Source:

codeminion.com (Developer's website)

Restore the ruined temples in an ancient tournament of divine puzzles! Take part in the Ancient Quest of Saqqarah and descend deep below the sands to the magical underground oasis filled with puzzles, treasures and mysteries! It's up to you to fulfill an ancient Egyptian prophecy and stop evil god Seth from breaking out of his arcane tomb prison. In order to succeed the chosen one will have to master 7 different types of puzzles plus mini-games!

• 7 different puzzle games
• Hidden Object bonus rounds
• Over 500 hand crafted levels

Source:

gameclubcafe.com (Publisher's website)

Codeminion Sheds Some Light on Their Secret Project - Saqqarah!

April 16, 2008 - Codeminion, the makers of hit Magic Match released first information and images from Saqqarah - their upcoming major project, details of which were held in mystery to this day.

Saqqarah is described as a mind teasing game with an adventure movie feel to it, of length and production values not seen in the casual industry before. “From an average casual game you expect simplistic presentation and around 8 hours of game play. We wanted to produce something that could match AAA titles. For us, casual games should be fun and accessible to *everyone* - stereotypical women in their thirties, as well as for their teenage hardcore gamer sons” says Konrad Olesiewicz, Codeminion’s co-owner and game producer.

Saqqarah has been Codeminion’s secret flagship project for a about a year. Said Tom Grochowiak, game designer: “Content-wise the game is pretty much complete. However, for us that doesn’t mean it’s done. We’re now focused on polishing and play testing. We want to make something really great, so perfectionism is the way to go”. The developers promised to release more news in the near future and pointed to www.saqqarahthegame.com as the aggregate of all the available information.

Saqqarah’s news website containing all up-to-date information: www.saqqarahthegame.com

Source:

Codeminion press release (April 16, 2008)

Codeminion Releases More information on Saqqarah, Their upcoming Major Project

April 23, 2008 – Codeminion released more information and media from their upcoming major casual game – Ancient Quest of Saqqarah.

About a week from revealing Saqqarah – their secret project, Codeminion released more information and media from the game on www.saqqarahthegame.com. The developers revealed more details about the promised variety and length of the game as well as released new in-game screenshots. They also provided first samples of the game’s music and voice-overs.

“In Saqqara, the player will discover a mysterious underground oasis where she or he will be tasked with a quest to restore temples of the Egyptian gods. Each temple will provide a different type of puzzle challenge. Some of them will be well familiar to the casual players, while others were never seen before. They all share some core features and goals, but provide completely different pace and game mechanics” describes Tom Grochowiak, designer at Codeminion. The developers haven’t revealed the exact amount of temples or the total amount of hours needed to complete the game.

Studio representatives also provided more information on the game’s audiovisuals. Maciej Biedrzycki, game programmer, musician and Codeminion’s co-owner says: “We really tried our best to get the production value to the highest level. Saqqarah features graphics rarely seen on this market and puts much more emphasis on soundtrack than the competition. It will feature over 25 music tracks, many from the same people who worked on The Witcher soundtrack. The game’s story will be voiced and among many actors the main character will feature the voice of Michael McConnohie, known from core titles such as Diablo2 or WoW”. Samples of music and voice recordings are available for listening and download from the game’s website.

Game’s exact launch date is still unannounced, but the developers promised to reveal more information and media in the upcoming weeks.

Saqqarah’s news website containing all up-to-date information: www.saqqarahthegame.com

Codeminion official website with more information: www.codeminion.com

Source:

Codeminion press release (April 23, 2008)

Saqqarah Gameplay Details Revealed!

May 5, 2008 - Today Codeminion revealed the details on Saqqarah's varied gameplay along with first in-game screenshots showing its unique mechanics. The company also presented the box art, featuring Khufu - the game's main character.

Company's website provides an exact list of gameplays in Saqqarah:

o Isis Swap - A classical match-3 on the Saqqarah’s "distorted grid" board topology.

o Sobek's Rotate - Rotate clusters of tokens to create closed groups of one type.

o Puzzles of Thot - For the logic puzzle fans. Rearrange tokens freely to find a winning solution that matches the underlying distorted grid.

o Chains of Anubis - Drag select mechanics known from Magic Match on the "distorted grid" topology.

o Horus Token Pop - Quick paced mode challenging player's perception. Find the biggest visible chains of tokens and race against time.

o Hand of Osiris - Use the token in hand to create one-colored closed fields on the distorted grid.

o Paths of Bast - Strategically move the tokens along the paths on the grid to create colored groups.

o Glyph Search - A sort of hidden object gameplay used in bonus rounds.

Konrad Olesiewicz, one of the company's owners, adds: "What's really wonderful, is that these gameplays share common winning conditions and obstacles, but the differing mechanics encourage the players to develop varied strategic approaches. For example - removing an obstacle with an exploding token requires different approach in the classical Isis Swap than in the strategic Paths of Bast, where you have a direct control over the pieces and each move should be carefully planned. This makes the game very easy to learn due to the common features, yet it offers a lot of depth at the same time".

Codeminion also presented the promo/box art for the game, featuring Khufu - a Magical Monkey from the Underground Oasis - the game's main character and player's mentor. This rather extraordinary gentleman will speak with the voice of Michael McConnohie, known from such titles as Diablo 2 or World of Warcraft. The box art and a voice sample are available on the game's teaser website at www.saqqarahthegame.com.

Saqqarah, Codeminion biggest project so far, was announced as a rich and deep puzzle game of quality and proportions not seen in the casual industry before. The exact launch date remains unannounced.

Source:

Codeminion press release (May 05, 2008)

Puzzle fans rejoice! Ancient Quest of Saqqarah is officially released!

July 18, 2008 – Fans of cerebral challenges and fun games in general can start worrying about their lives and careers – Ancient Quest of Saqqarah – a vast and cinematic puzzle game by Codeminion is officially released!

Talking blue monkey with the voice of Michael McMconnohie (Diablo 2, World of Warcraft), over 500 puzzles spread across 7 different game play types, classy visuals and music composed by the people responsible for the soundtrack of The Witcher. Saqqarah certainly doesn’t seem like an average casual game made to entertain for 2 hours and then to disappear completely from the memory. In earlier press releases the game was described by its developers as an “AAA casual title”. With its official premiere today, we can finally verify this statement; and it seems that Codeminion has kept their word.

Newly released Saqqarah has already gathered very positive reviews and lots of appreciation from the casual gaming community. GameZebo, a casual reviews website, described Saqqarah as “a benchmark against which to score all future competition” and gave the game a rare five stars review.

“We knew that the casual market is overflowing with tons of similar games. So our idea was not to make a puzzle game, but to make *the* puzzle game. With quality, length and variety never seen in this market before. We also wanted to attract more hardcore players and show them that puzzle games can be as exciting and great looking as AAA titles” – explains Konrad Olesiewicz – game producer and Codeminion co-owner.

“If I would have to name Saqqarah’s best feature, it would be the variety of challenges. It’s over 500 hand crafted levels and 7 different styles of game play, ranging from classical match-3 to some completely new ideas. They all share common features, are easy to learn and can be played in short chunks of time. However, to complete *everything* at least 50 hours is needed... and we’re releasing the first expansion soon” – says Tom Grochowiak, game designer.

Saqqarah indeed plays great with its simple-yet-compelling premise, beautiful graphic style and professional voice acting. As all Codeminion’s games, there’s a 60 minutes trial version available online at www.gameclubcafe.com – the developer’s casual games portal.

Saqqarah’s official website with more info, screenshots and downloads: www.saqqarahthegame.com

Codeminion’s gaming portal where Saqqarah trial is available: www.gameclubcafe.com

Codeminion official website: www.codeminion.com

Source:

Codeminion press release (July 18, 2008)

Codeminion Releases German Version of Ancient Quest of Saqqarah

October 31, 2008 - Independent studio Codeminion Codeminion releases fully localized German language version of their flagship puzzler - Ancient Quest of Saqqarah, acclaimed by the casual game reviewers as one of the best games in the match-3 genre.

The localization was conducted by Artifex Consultants and is fully featured with all the voiced parts being re-recorded from scratch for the purposes of the German release. "Good voice acting is crucial in Saqqarah for building the atmosphere and guiding the player through the game. We knew we have to re-record all the voices from scratch with German actors" - explains Konrad Olesiewicz, game producer and Codeminion co-owner.

Codeminion says they have review copies available for any German outlets that would be interested in writing about the game. "We would like to reach people who were previously unable to play Saqqarah because of the language barrier. We would definitely be interested in German casual-oriented websites that could present our games to a new audience".

Ancient Quest of Saqqarah is a large and highly successful casual puzzle game, described by GameZebo as "benchmark against which to score all future competition". It features over 500 levels spread across 7 different puzzle mechanics, with production values rarely seen in the casual games market. An expansion 'SaqPack' doubling the amount of game's levels is already available on the developer's website at the price of $10.

Saqqarah is a second downloadable game by Codeminion translated to German. The first one was StoneLoops! - a dynamic marble popper released in localized versions on July 1, 2008. Both games are available from the Codeminion website on a try-before-you-buy basis, at the price of $19.95.

Source:

Codeminion press release (October 31, 2008)

Solve over 500 challenging and innovative matching puzzles spread across 7 different temples and restore mysterious powers of Egypt.

Once every thousand years a mysterious eclipse shrouds the ancient pyramid of Saqqarah. With help of Khufu - the Magical Monkey from the Underground Oasis, solve over 500 challenging puzzles spread across 7 different modes of gameplay and restore mysterious powers of ancient Egypt in this rich and original matching game.

Here are few things that game journalists said about the game. Feel free to click the links and read the full reviews.

"You've got to love acclaimed casual game developer Codeminion's commitment to innovation and quality. (...) This flagship outing - an Egyptian-themed puzzler blessed with stunning visuals and varied play styles - blows the doors off previous debuts, raising the bar for the entire genre in the process."

GameZebo.com

"In fairness, it is the best of the genre that I have experienced. The gameplay is exceedingly simple, yet because Saqqarah is such a magnificently presented game, I find myself playing level after level, just needing to finish off that next set of puzzles or just wanting to add that next trophy to my collection. Addictive is an understatement (...)"

Bytten.com

"This game features the most variety of any matching game I can remember, with seven distinct versions of the classic mechanic to choose from. (...) The presentation is top-notch, thanks to memorable sound and pleasing graphics. This, my friends, is how you do a match-three puzzle game."

Out of Eight PC

Source:

www.saqqarahthegame.com (Official website)