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South African studio Nyamakop unveiled "Relooted" at the Summer Game Fest in Los Angeles—a new game where players infiltrate heavily guarded institutions to repatriate real African artifacts looted during the colonial era and still held in Western museums.
The heist game is set in an Africanfuturism-themed 21st century; following a deal that promised to return African artifacts from Western museums sets the stage for the players’ mission.
Beneath the action-packed gameplay lies a deeper narrative grounded in real history and the ongoing global debate over the repatriation of cultural artifacts. Players step into the role of a member of a futuristic African crew on a mission to recover 70 genuine stolen artifacts and return them to the continent. Among the featured items are the Ethiopian Maqdala manuscripts and Zambia’s Broken Hill Skull—each with its own story of loss and heritage.
During the game development, Nyamakop worked with African historians, artists and linguists to ground its vision in specific cultural traditions.
The creative director of the game, Ben Myres, said that they looked for artifacts with great stories in terms of how they were looted. And among the many powerful stories of looted African heritage is that of the Ngadji drum from Kenya. Long believed to be destroyed, the ceremonial drum was in fact stored away in the British Museum for over a century. It wasn’t until the 2010s that a Kenyan descendant of the very king it was taken from in 1870 laid eyes on it—the first member of the community to do so in over 100 years. “These aren’t just dusty objects dug up by archaeologists,” said game creator Myres. “They belong to living cultures.”
Myres said that even as the game itself seeks to break new ground, the team faces real-world challenges. A Nyamakop developer was unable to attend the U.S. showcase for "Relooted" due to their visa being denied, an experience that mirrored the very inequalities the game was intended to critique.
The idea for "Relooted" began to take shape during a family trip to London. While Myres visited a gaming bar, his parents toured the British Museum.
At dinner, his mother expressed outrage at seeing the entire facade of an ancient temple from southern Türkiye displayed in the museum—a stark symbol of how far looted heritage can travel.
Her reaction planted the seed and became a turning point. She urged Myres to turn that outrage into a game. At first, he wasn’t sure how.
But as the idea simmered, it naturally found its focus in Africa, where the movement to reclaim looted artifacts is especially strong. That’s when the creative process began—with Myres and his growing team building a futuristic heist experience rooted in real history.
"Relooted" does not have a release date yet, but it is in development for Steam, the Epic Games Store, and Xbox Series X|S.
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