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.

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).  

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.

Ebony Senet Board

We stained the box of this Senet board with an ebony stain.  The papyrus plants around the base, at the ends of the game board, and the inner squares of the game squares, are all copper leafing.

Crocodile throwing sticks

Senet was played by casting throwing sticks or rolling dice.  The number of squares you moved your playing piece depended on which way the sticks lantded.  One side of the stick was usually distinct from the other by color, decoration, or shape.  We carved these throwing sticks to resemble crocodiles--a very important animal in ancient Egyptian art.  

Casting Senet Game Pieces

Finally got around to casting the game pieces for the Senet and Tjau games.  We hand-carved and baked the original pieces out of modeling clay, then created a single mold for each piece. From these molds, we created five game pieces of each of style (2 different styles for each player, a simple cone and spool, and a more ornate set modeled after a bundle of reeds and a papyrus flower).  Below are pictures of the sets we've made so far--really at this point we're just playing with colors.  The bottom picture shows a five-piece mold for our cone-shaped game markers.

Senet Game Board with carved lid and painted gold base pattern

Both the box and the Senet game board lid are made of pine. The 30-Square Senet board is hand-carved, and the heiroglyphs were also etched by hand.  The box was stained with an ebony wipe-on stain and then sealed. After sealing, the pattern along the bottom edge was hand-painted with gold leaf (the pattern is based on a pattern along part of King Tut's gold death mask).  A 20-Square Tjau board is carved on the flip-side of the lid.

Gold Leaf Heiroglyphs

We're experimenting with applying gold leaf for the Senet board heiroglyphs.  Here's an example on one of our older boxes.  The outstanding question is whether or not the protective seals over the box will be enough to protect the gold leaf during game play.

Senet Game Board Squares

We started experimenting with the game squares for Senet.  Here, we've simply painted the heiroglyphs onto the appropriate squares.  The meaning of the glyphs, as far as gameplay, is open to some interpretation.  I'll go into depth on gameplay in a later post.  The glyph in the center of the board (usually referred to as "square 15"), is usually called the House of Rebirth.  In some renditions of the rules, a player's piece must go back to this square if he lands on square 27, the House of Waters (4th from the last square).

20 Square (Tjau) board and pieces

This picture shows one of our 20-Square (Tjau) boards, with prototype game pieces and a set of knucklebones for dice.  The pieces were sculpted in clay and then cast in resin; we'll probably create molds to easily create complete sets for each game board.

Tjau boards were well known during the same time as Senet, and could be often found on the opposite side of Senet boards.  This particular set has a Senet board on the flip side of the lid.