A Journey Through the Underworld
Egyptian Senet is a digital version of the world's oldest board game, dating back to ancient Egypt. The game frames your match as an afterlife journey: after Anubis performs the opening of the mouth ceremony on your mummy, you travel through the underworld realm of Osiris, protected by the Eye of Horus. Your goal is to move your pawns across the board and leave it, mirroring the Egyptian belief of a soul passing through the netherworld to reach rebirth. The game uses the rules developed by Timothy Kendall in his 1978 work, "Passing Through the Netherworld: The Meaning and Play of Senet, an Ancient Egyptian Funerary Game."
How the Board Works
The board consists of 30 squares arranged in three rows of ten. Pawns move from left to right through the first row, drop down to move right to left through the second, and then move left to right along the third before exiting the board. Five special squares have their own rules and hieroglyphs: square 15 is the House of Rebirth, square 26 is the House of Beauty, square 27 is the House of Water, square 28 is the House of the Three Truths, square 29 is the House of Two Truths, and square 30 is the House of Horus. The game combines luck and strategy, with moves determined by throwing casting sticks. You can throw the casting sticks by pressing the spacebar instead of clicking with the mouse.
Playing Together
The Steam version of Egyptian Senet supports Remote Play Together, which lets friends join your session over a network. The store text describes Senet as a two-player board game, and later depictions show a deceased player competing against an invisible adversary. You face that invisible adversary inside an Egyptian hidden tomb in the Valley of the Queens.
Before You Start
The setting is an echoing, tomb-like chamber with an ancient stone board and pieces, using authentic photos of Egyptian temples along with ritualistic music and sound effects of stone pieces moving. The game is suitable for adults and kids. The interface is available in English, Arabic, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Dutch, Russian, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, and Portuguese (Brazil).