[038] Making Games Every Day for a Month, Days 29 + 30 + 31: Fidchell (pt. 3)

"The object isn't to make art, it's to be in that wonderful state which makes art inevitable." - Robert Henri

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Slow work. Hard wood.

A bit of gouging practice on some Pine, too.

Deepening the lines.

Smoothing the surface.

The board is feeling good. Now, for the pieces.

I have decided not to use the Ash branches for pieces, but rather, some beautiful snail shells from the river valley hills back home.

After a little wash, they're looking very fresh.

I also procured a good set of Kentucky Coffeebean seeds from the sidewalk a while back. I like their weight, and smoothness, and roundness. Perfect game pieces.

These snail shells are extremely fragile, so I'm filling them with wax to give a bit of weight and sturdiness. It seems to work!

In Fidchell, one person plays as Life, and the other as Death. I think a red squirmy blob emerging from a spiral shell is a suiting symbol for Life.

And there we have it. The board will need some further care - oiling, some decorative carving, and so on. But the game lives, and the month is over. Thanks for sticking around for it.

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"If a story lands immediately in your logic, if it is neatly trimmed and makes perfect sense, it's not really doing its work. Stories, old myths, do a kind of open-heart surgery on you." - Martin Shaw, interviewed in Emergence vol. 1