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.

Casting Senet Game Pieces

Over the last several months we've come up with four or five different designs for the game pieces that go with our Senet boards.  We decided it made sense to pick two of our favorite designs and just start making sets of them.  These pics show our workspace as we cast some of the pieces (usually a pretty messy process when you start dealing with the dyes), and a few sets of one of the game piece pairs we decided to go with. This pair is one of the first that we designed and cast.  I think it's one of our favorites because they're so simple, and are very true to the original ancient Egyptian pieces.

Some late night game board staining

Decided to stay up late and get some staining done.  Below is a picture of our first 11 x 11 hnefatafl board. In the unstained shot you also see four 9 x 9 tablut boards.  I just finished wiping down the stained hnefatfal board about 10 minutes ago.  We'll let it dry for about 72 hours, then apply a water-based polycrylic that will give the gameboard a nice looking finished look. 

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).  

New Tafl Pieces

Had to wait three days for our new tafl piece mold to cure, but it was finally ready to go last night. We went ahead and cast a set for Tablut.  These are simple black and white, I'd like to go for more of a stone like effect later.

Gluing the Tablut Frame

Finally got around to gluing the frame for the Tablut board.  The frame is only about half an inch thick at its widest, so my corner straps were a little tricky to get in place. 

The individual squares for this board are 1 1/4 inches on a side, and the overall gameboard is just under 12" x 12" with the frame.

Oiling Senet Boxes

Applying Danish oil is something we do to all our boxes and gameboards.  Whether we use dark walnut or natural, it really brings out the grain of the wood.  For most of our game boards, this is the second to last step before we finish them. The last step is typically to apply a water-based polycrylic finish to further protect the wood and any paint or leafing.

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.

Modern "font" Senet Boards

Just trying something different, we used a spray-on enamel for the game squares on these game boards. The clean game square symbols, as well as the spaces between the squares themselves, were covered with thin strips of tape which we lifted after spraying the enamel.  Has something of a modern feel to them, so I'm not too sure if we'll come back to this technique.

Creating new Senet game piece molds

Here we're casting new molds for our small senet game pieces.  The original pieces were sculpted out of clay, from which we cast a single mold of each type of Senet pawn. Using the single molds, we cast five pieces of each for a complete set.  The problem with using a single mold to create game pieces is that if you want to add any kind of coloring to the piece, it's very difficult to maintain consistent coloring for the set if you cast the pieces one at a time rather than all at once.

In this pic we've taped the game pieces into disposable aluminum bread pans using glue dots.

Next, we mix the mold compound.  We're using Alumilite HM III compound.  It takes a few days to fully cure, but it's very durable and flexible

Pouring the compound over the secured pieces

Had just enough to cover both 5-piece sets.