Digital Sáhkku

Sáhkku is a Sámi board game that has existed for hundreds of years.  Around the 1960-70's almost no one is playing this game anymore, and board, pieces and the rules have slowly vanished. Until a collective effort from many people made Sáhkku available again - with models for 3D printing pieces, variations of the rules available online, courses in how to play and how to make your own Sáhkku board and pieces. There exists some digital versions of Sáhkku already here and here. This digital version of Sáhkku, made in the 48 hours of the Siida GameJam 2026, consists of two main building blocks; the rules and the board and its pieces. 

Sáhkku has many rule sets, you can read some of them here, collected by Mikkel Berg-Nordlie, who has also contributed with his knowledge for this digital version, and gives courses how to play wherever he goes.  The rules in this game are the Lágesvuon sáhkku Unjárgga gonagasain - Vuonnamárkan málle. In other words, the Lágesvuotna Sáhkku played with Unjárga king - Vuonnamárkanat style. This is not by coincidence; every year there is a big Sámi market in Vuonnabáhta, gathering thousands of people. For the last years, the Sáhkku world cup has been held here, playing by the Lágesvuon sáhkku Unjárgga gonagasain rules. This years winner was Øyvind Betten, an eager player and Sáhkku ambassadeur, who has offered his knowledge making sure the rules follow Vuonnamárkan málle.

The board displayed here is made by Snefrid Møllersen, under the supervision of duojár Per Andersen from Unjárga.  Each piece is hand made, and making a complete board takes weeks. Per Andersen has made boards, pieces and dice for years - based on old boards and pieces, and also his own design. He also gives courses in how to make board, pieces and dice. The soldiers, the king and the dice in this board is from an old board from Unjárga, but the two queens is Per Andersen's own design. He has shared his knowledge for the making of digital board, pieces and dice. An alternative to wooden pieces, that you can also choose in the digital version, is dákteboalut, pieces of bone. These pieces have been collected during the summer, by Snefrid Møllersen's (lazy) daughter, Kajsa Møllersen. The king and queens are stones.

The sound effects are recorded from the pieces moving on the board. The dice have been rolled in the lid of a giisá, that the Siida Museum let us use for that purpose. If you win, you will here the risku sound, recorded from Pia Nikula's riskkut, made by silbačeahppi Petteri Laiti. The ambient sound is made by Nicola Renzi and Mai Britt Utsi, and thousands of mosquitos. A small group of Siida Museum employees was used as reference group, and they found the sound either really soothing or extremely annoying. There is an option to turn it off in the game. 

Samuli Jääskeläinen - Programmer 
Jenna Korhonen - Artist/Modeler
Kajsa Møllersen - Researcher/Audio
Antti Mursu - Programmer

Gameplay video: