PRECIOUS museum exhibits will be brought to life in a new computer game.

Treasures of Durham University’s Oriental Museum will be made accessible all over the world via the Internet through a game being created by the universities of Durham and Teesside.

Maggie Parker, a senior lecturer in games animation at Teesside, said: “The work will invite its audiences to enter a digital landscape and to explore and interact with a series of digitised sub-works set within a virtual environment.”

Craig Barclay, the Oriental Museum’s curator, said: “This project represents a unique opportunity for a museum which is home to some of the country’s finest historic collections to work with digital innovators to develop new means of engaging with audiences.”

The game will initially be on the Oriental Museum’s website. It is hoped it will eventually be available on smartphones and tablets.