Earlier this month a small development studio you've never heard of and Africast Global Media announced a joint venture to produce a "ground-breaking," massively-multiplayer game based on ancient African mythology. MTV games reporter Stephen Totilo interviewed the principals involved in making the project happen, scoring some details not found on the game's website.

While we certainly welcome a break from the constant and tiring stream of Elves, Dwarves, Orcs, Paladins, Wizards, Mages and so on, we're dubious that this game is going to be all that and a bag of chips, mostly because the initial hype is so egregiously over the top. Here's what the 19-year-old programming wizard responsible for developing this ambitious MMOG promises he'll deliver just 10 months from now, thanks to supposed paradigm-changing technology that reduces development costs and timelines by "ninety percent or more:"

• "better graphics, better gameplay" than other MMOGs currently on the market
• graphics that surpass the quality of games built on Unreal Engine 3
• despite the superlative graphics, the game will run well "even on the less powerful computers frequented by Africans in their countries' cybercafes"
• The ability for players to "compose original music or perform unique dances"
• "Hundreds of unique locations such as Egyptian tombs, Roman ruins guarded by the shades of fallen legionnaires, and even a mysterious desert city"

As long-time players of MMOGs, we're no strangers to pre-release hype. We'll have to wait and see if these claims are satisfied when we play the game. For now, we'll just have to watch this short clip.