Home NewsDahschur Making of: Dahschur

Making of: Dahschur

by Sezgin Güven

Dahshur is the winning title of the second game author’s competition, that we have carried out at www.spielmaterial.de, in the category “complex game“. In this respect, the game is based on the components of the game Candamir, which is the time appeared at Kosmos and belonged to the CATAN games world.

Dahshur is a strategy game in which many actions are linked across the game, which is why it is not easy to find a way to win. You need to be aware of many things.
The author Pauli Haimerl submitted a prototype, which already was graphically quite appealing. The illustrator Christian Opperer found perfect graphics for the game though.

Eine der wesentlichen Aufgaben war es, alle notwendigen Spielbereiche auf dem Spielplan unterzukriegen, da die Prachtstraße einigen Platz beansprucht. Die Lösung hierfür war die Idee die Grabkammer, die für die Endwertung benötigt wird, im Schachtelinneren unterzubringen. Ein optisches Highlight, wenn die Schachtelbox, als Pyramide designt, geöffnet wird, um die Grabkammer freizugeben.

One of the main tasks was to fit all the needed play areas onto the board, because the boulevard claimed quite some space. The solution to this was the idea to accommodate the grave chamber inside of the box, which is required for the final results. A visual highlight when the box, designed as a pyramid, is opened to reveal the grave chamber.

A special feature of the game Dahshur is that the game box is part of the game.

Even though the box is flat of course, the impression is graphically conveys that it is a pyramid. The pyramid (the box) is placed next to the board, so that the avenue shown there leads to the pyramid – a corresponding entry is displayed on the box.

Inside the pyramid is the grave chamber where offerings are to be placed according to the objective of the game. This is symbolized by opening the box and then the grave chamber can be seen inside.

Historical Background

Dahschur lies 26 km south of Cairo on the west bank of the Nile in Giza Governorate. Here stands the Red Pyramid, which owes its name to the reddish color of the rocks, from which it was built. This was the third great pyramid of Pharaoh Sneferu (2670-2620 B.C.) Was built during the 4th Dynasty (Old Kingdom) and served probably as a tomb.

With the Red Pyramid for the first time a truely geometric pyramid planned from beginning as such was completed. It is the third highest of the ancient Egyptian pyramids with a present height of about 104 meters and is third in built-up volume.

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