Seej, to quote it’s brief, ‘is an Open Source tabletop war game designed to advance the state of 3D printing through competition and player-directed evolution. Players print their own armaments and fortifications for use in battle. If you can print it, it’s legal to use in the game.’ Risk for the 21st century then? It’s a game that even had staging evenings at NYC Resister, famed for being Bre Pettis of MakerBot’s hangout. Seej has just been updated.
Seej is a game that takes the principles of open-source to their logical conclusion: that the games components are flexible is one thing, that the rules are open-source is another.
The basic tenant is that one player has to knock over the others flags using the various devices and arsenal concocted by their own imagination (or love of historical warfare knowledge, Games Workshop addiction, etc.). The base kit comes with Trebuchet, staple of all Hollywood historical battles, with coins as arms, and logo-brick-esque walls to knock over. These are all available, open-source and for free of course, over at The Forge.
No, forgery is not part of the game: the coins are not open-source 3D-printables…
“Good design, good engineering, and good luck are the three pillars upon which a Seej victory is built. Design your Seej engines well, for your opponents are busy forging superior fortifications in OpenSCAD and SketchUp.” Declares the Seej philosophy.
And what better catalyst for innovative approaches, motivation for participation, and educational potential?
As country after country is now adding 3D printing to that nation’s classroom syllabus, simple, fun educational learning tools will become rapidly more important. In the UK for example, where 3D-printing will join the national curriculum next year, after an announcement only weeks ago, teachers will be looking for ‘ways in’ to the technology that are accessible for pupils and, lets be honest, simple for teachers in these times of pressing change.
There are other great looking games orientated around 3D-printable parts, such as those of Adrian Croft “DutchMogul” to Sublime’s Settlers of Catan upgraded board game pieces, but none I have come across so far match the level of orientation around 3DP as designer Zheng3‘s updated SEEJ 2013.
I personally believe that the potential benefits for society of 3D printing in the classroom are huge, and that the potential profits for those wishing to enter this new market are too.
There is, should Maker participation follow to anything at all like programmer participation in App Dev for iOS, Andriod, etc., the potential for a platform, marketplace, network, and so on, for 3D printed games.
I wonder what the uptake on this niche will be?
In the mean time… happy gaming!
The SEEJ 2013 Game Description:
‘The rules to Seej are open source and infinitely expandable. Seej is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.
At a minimum, you’ll need to download and print the Seej 2013 starter set. It contains flags, catapults, and two kinds of bloxen. (You can still download the original starter set for archaeological purposes.)
Print two sets, find an opponent, and have fun storming the castle!
There’s a wide assortment of additional Seej engines, bloxen, and accessories in The Forge.
These models are free to download and print. They are also distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike license, so players are free to modify and remix them for their own games.’
