In 2017, Conner began a multi-year effort to resurrect the world of Ancient Egypt through the medium of videogames — an epic project that would forge his unique development methodologies and technical abilities across time and space.
A breakdown of the project's long and tumultuous story, and my personal history with videogame development.
As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be an Egyptian.
Immediately blasts "Rags to Riches" by Tony Bennett.
When I was a kid, I grew up with the movies The Prince of Egypt (1998) and The Mummy (1999). I was obsessed with the Egyptian world — mummies, scarabs, hieroglyphs, temples and treasure. In college I took courses in archaeology and Egyptology, and came to find myself discovering Egypt's deeper world of pharaonic power, monumental building projects, wars of conquest and arcane cosmological principles.
So when it came time to throw myself into a self-chosen project upon which to build a company, I committed myself to developing a game that gave players the power and experience of being Pharaoh.
Akhenaten would ultimately never be finished — but I plan on returning to it some day.
The video above breaks down this project's long and tumultuous story, and my personal history with the subject of videogame development.