[013] Making Games Every Day for a Month, Day 1 of 31: Pong Hau K'i

"Interest in old board games may arise from finding some bygone relic in an antique shop, seeing a display on the shelves of a museum, from stumbling across obscure games in travellers' accounts, or in archaeological references to fragmentary gaming-equipment discovered on ancient sites." - R.C. Bell, Discovering Old Board Games

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This month, my birthday month, October, of the year of our current era 2025, I will be handcrafting one (1) game a day until All Hallow's Eve.

We are going to start with a very small game called Pong Hau K'i. This game is very compelling, because it feels like the simplest possible game of its kind that still feels like a game. It's the same sort of thing as Tag. You can't possibly make a simpler game. It's like a whole genre in itself.

I found this game in R.C. Bell's Discovering Old Board Games , a slim yet rich volume that is both historically responsible and ludically fascinating.

I have some beautiful pieces of lightning-struck ash (!!!) which I split into thin pieces a long time ago. It's amazingly hard, and feels immensely magical. When a tree is struck by lightning, the electrical charge zipping through the cells of the tree can flash-dry the whole thing in one moment. The structure of the tree stays the same but it is immediately and perfectly dried and hardened! Isn't that amazing?

I just want a little square piece of this to use for the board.

My splitting technique here is........ not recommended. Unsafe and foolish.

Beautiful! There's something about a nice little square of wood that inspires infinite possibilities. I also feel this way about trees. And sheep. The materials encourage endless dreaming.

I recently acquired this chisel, it's a very interesting little thing. The blade is ever so slightly concave, so I want to try and use it to smooth out the surface of the game board.

It works! Of course, I have a very cheap phone-grip-stand, so it wiggles quite fiercely when clamped to a table on which chiseling is going on.

Delightfully smooth!

My friend Maeve Gathje has made some wooden trivets with little wooden nub-feet carved out of the bottom. I'm going to try and do the same with this piece. The wood is very hard and I'm used to working with fresh green wood, so it's a bit of slow going!

The way to play this game is to move one piece at a time along the board lines. You keep going until you can't make a move. If you can't make a move, you lose! That's it. It's wicked simple but the trick of it takes a bit to learn.

It took a while but I quite love the little feet!

They add a nice little shadow and elevation to the board, too.

Now to drill the holes. I want the playing pieces to be little pegs, and the board to have holes for the pegs to fit in snug. It's not a very deep piece of wood so I've added a little piece of tape to the drill bit as a depth-gauge! A classic trick.

So lovely! This is a great game to sketch on a napkin, or draw in the beach sand, or lay out with sticks. I love games like that. It's impossible to know really how old they are, because there are no records of all the boards etched in the dirt.

If I make another board like this, I think I'd like to paint it first, then gouge the lines. I think the contrast between the color of the paint and the color of the wood might be very bright and crisp! But, for today, I'm going to gouge these lines as deep as I can and then give it a good oil.

Oh!!!! It is most beautiful! Why is it that a little carved line can give so much joy? Just a wee bit of whittling makes my heart leap.

Yow!!! I carved down the edges so now all the surfaces are quite nice, quite nice.

Oiled!!!! Look at 'er shine! Wood as a material is such a gift. It is such a joy to work with, and such a joy to experience with all the senses!

Now for the pieces: I've snipped four little birch twiglets here. They're still fresh and green, so they won't take oil until they are totally dried out, but we can still use them!

Ruth Goodman writes in her book The Domestic Revolution that human dependence on wood for daily needs has severely dropped off since the introduction of fossil fuels. It was not so long ago that British and American people needed all sizes of wood for burning, cooking, weaving into baskets, carving into tools, building, repairing, and so much more. As we have transitioned to an industrial world, we have forgotten the bounty of our forests, and the biodiversity of the wildwood has suffered.

It is my work to nurture a dependence on the forest. There is so much joy in the greenwood.

Ope - almost forgot to drill the last hole!

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"Only if we care, will we help. Only if we help, shall all be saved." - Jane Goodall, The Book of Hope