Hi there! My name is Cassidy, and I love playing Go. For those who haven’t played it, it’s a board game that’s thousands of years old, and has millions of players worldwide. It has incredibly simple rules that take only a minute or so to learn, and yet the strategy you develop is so complex that it takes a lifetime to master.
If you want to play Go “on the go” (pun intended), it’s fairly difficult. Go boards (often called by their Japanese name, gobans) are typically 19×19 squares, and are nearly 20 inches (~50 centimeters) square, and are thick, large blocks of wood, often as thick as 7 or 8 inches. And that’s not including the pieces themselves, which are usually weighty round black and white stones of varying height.
That’s where this project comes in! Introducing Go: On The Go!
Each set will come with a beautiful, wooden laser cut 9×9 Go board (measuring only 7⅛ inches, or ~18cm square), 80 black pieces, 80 white pieces (each about the size of a US penny), and instructions about how to play. Both the board and the pieces are 1/8″ thick. The pieces are laser cut from a sturdy, lightweight acrylic, and each set of pieces will have their own drawstring carrying bag.
I have the equipment to make these, and I’ve made several for myself already. If the campaign is much larger than I anticipated, I’ve costed out and planned with manufacturers to get everything cut at a larger scale. The biggest time suck will be sorting, packaging, and shipping. If the campaign is larger than anticipated, I will work with a shipping company to get everything shipped to backers faster. I am hoping to get everything to everyone before the designated dates I listed, but added some cushion time in there in case something goes wrong. For folks outside of the US: I am really sorry, but shipping is expensive and incredibly variable. I’m a one-woman operation, and unfortunately haven’t been able to get past the hurdle of international shipping. If you’re outside the US and would still like to back this project (THANK YOU), unfortunately I can’t ship you a set, but I’m hoping that after this project is over, I’m able to offer this off of Kickstarter. I will regularly communicate every step along the way whenever there is progress to share, and will answer questions in the comments as they arise!