Seega boards now available on EBay!

Finally got around to listing some of our boardgames on EBay.  Right now we're going with Seega boards to see how things go.  Two styles are listed: one with the raised fence frame, and one with the flush frame.  Very excited about this big step.  Eventually we may set up our own online storefront.

Back in the Game

Time to dust off the blog--took quite a sabbatical, but we're back.

I just created a new page with a draft of the rules of Seega (you'll see the link along the top of the page with the other page links).  There are several websites out there that detail this very enjoyable game, but we felt that since we plan to continue making (and soon, selling) Seega boards, we should provide the rules off this page.

Completed Seega boards

And here are the final stained Seega boards with the glass game tokens.  Played several games with my sons tonight--Seega continues to be a household favorite.

Seega Game process

Hello, everyone--figured it was time to get back into updating the blog regularly--apologies for the overlong delay.

Any of you that have read the older posts know that I like to write not only about the games we make, but the stages and processes we use to make them.  This entry focuses mainly on a small batch of Seega games we've nearly completed, but the process itself applies (mostly) to how we assemble our tafl boards as well.  There are basically three components to these game boards as we makes them: the base, the game squares, and the frame.  The base we simply cut to size from a sheet of plywood (typically luaun).  The squares themselves, since they are the face of the game board, we cut from a nicer quality oak plywood.  To cut the squares, I cut thin strips of the plywood on my table saw. Then, I stack them 4 deep and cut them using a miter saw.

This picture shows one of my oak plywood strips on the miter saw with the jig i use for Seega and tafl board squares.

I usually just dedicate an hour or two a week to cut a lot of squares, and bag them in bags of 40.

Once I have the bases and the squares cut, we just carefully the glue the sqaures on.  I usually have a little trim-work to do on the sides of the boards, but then I cut the board frames.  For the Seega games, I cut simple unstained L-shape molding to size and then stain them.  Once the stain dries, we glue the frame to the board.

Here are four of the Seega boards, two have been glued  and dried, two are still clamped and drying.

Once the glue dries, we stain the boards and the frames to bring out the texture.  This batch we just stained a few hours ago with a dark walnut stain.   I tried to get the light so you can see the wet stain.  We put the first coat on for half an hour, the second coat for 15 minutes. After that, they get wiped down to dry for at least 8 hours. After that, they're pretty much finished.

Getting ready to set up a storefront

It's been a while between posts--not due to a lack of activity, though.  We've been busy getting our games itemized and put into a catalog as we get ready to open an online storefront for our games!  Still have a lot to do, but just yesterday we bought a mini tabletop photo studio set so we can take well-lit, high resolution pictures of the boardgames we want to offer for sale (see below for an example).  

Game Board Squares

Spent some time today cutting squares out of oak plywood.  These are 1 1/4 inch squares that we'll use for our tafl games (mainly Tablut and Ard Ri for now).  We use the same size for our Seega games, but we typically use pine for those.  During assembly, we need to do a light sanding to make sure everything fits correctly, and then the pieces are glued onto a base.

Latest Seega Boards

We felt simplicity was the best way to go with the Seega (sometimes seen as Siga) boards. The game board on the left was stained with a natural color Danish Oil, the one on the right we used a cherry color oil, and framed both with simple black.  The center square, which is the safe square in the game, we just painted black on one and copper on the other.

Assembling more Seega boards

Putting together a few more Seega boards--here we've cut and glued two more 5x5 game boards and cut and stained the board frames.  We'll experiment with some minor decorations to see what we like, but the simple origins and gameplay of Seega in my mind would be betrayed by any over decoration.

Seega--From Mock-Up to Prototype

Glued the game squares down to a base and applied a few coats of Natural color Danish Oil, then cut and stained a quick frame for the entire board.  Here the game board is dry assembled--we'll glue it together and apply a finish over the next day or so.  Still working on some good game pieces to replace the colored glass gems.

Seega Boardgame mockup.

Took a few minutes this afternoon to cut some small squares out of some of our scrap wood to put together an impromptu Seega game board.  Seega is a game we've only recently become acquainted with, which was played in ancient North Africa and the Middle East.  We used some colored glass gems we have on hand for temporary game pieces.  Game set-up reminds me a bit of 9 Mens Morris, in that each player basically gets to choose where they place their pieces (just not the center square), so game play each time will be a bit different.  Game play is very similar to Tafl games however--you capture an opponent's piece by sandwiching it between two of your own pieces (also known as 'custodial capture').  We played a game tonight and loved it--much more complex gameplay is possible than we intially expected.  This is definitely a game we'll make more of down the line.