Sayu Manufacturing and Future Projects
Hello friends!
For the past few weeks we have been working with a graphic designer to finalize the designs of the packaging.
We finally received the Kickstarter fund for Sayu - yay! We will be transferring the fee to our manufacturer on Monday and commence per-production sample. That should take about 2 weeks. If that all goes well we can start the mass production.
So with that our of the way - what is next for KhanatGames?
We have completed the design for our next game. It is by far my most popular design with people I have shown it to. It has the shortest play-time, the easiest to understand and yet it feels fun and endlessly re-playable.
The current name of the game is Wana (罠) meaning trap.
Wana is inspired by the ancient game Go (Baduk). I greatly admire Go from the game design point of view. The rules are very minimal and incredibly elegant. The depth is beyond fathomable.
And yet it is such a difficult get to get into. The game is so opaque and trying to play Go is like trying to see into the future decades at a time. I cannot easily recommend Go to most the people I meet. Sometime what is a good move in Go is so counterintuitive that it belies how most people approach the game.
Wana replicates the feel of trying to trap your opponent without being trapped in return. Instead of exposing player to ridiculous decision space of over 360 different choices each turn with stone placement - Wana use the mechanic of moving pieces with no capture and piece removal. The game is also decided on one specific condition and not by counting up territory or points.
And so without further adieu - here is Wana's board and starting position.
Wana is played with 19 marbles; 8 of each color. Each marble sits on a divot at the intersections between each line.
On your turn you must move one of your marble.
A marble can travel as far as you want along the line. A marble cannot move into or over another marble. If a marble travel over the edge it appears and continues from the opposite side.
The player who has marble that they cannot move at the beginning of their turn that player loses the game.
And that is it.
This short and simple rule give rise to a surprisingly fun and exciting game. And you can definitely try this game for yourself by printing out the simple grid below and use chess pawns instead of marbles.
I'm incredibly excited to make Wana available for everyone to play and I hope you are as well. Sayu is scheduled to be delivery at around September if all goes well so we should launch the Kickstarter for Wana sometime after that point.
As always, have a great day,
Khanat