Captain Sonar designer's Princess Jing is a bluffing game 18 years in the making inspired by a Michael Jackson music video

Captain Sonar co-designer Roberto Fraga has revealed his latest game, a project in gestation for almost two decades that was originally inspired by a Michael Jackson music video.

Princess Jing is a game of bluffing for two players, where each player is attempting to get their princess to cross a Chinese palace and meet their lover at the opposite edge.

To move the princess, each player swaps a pair of the 15 columns arranged on the board and behind which the princess can hide – but can choose to swap empty columns to mislead their opponent.

There’s also an additional mirror character – equipped with a real mirror – who can be used to try and spot the rival princess and capture her, sending her back to the beginning of the board.

A third character is dressed in a similar outfit to the princess, and can be used to confuse your rival when they utilise the mirror.

Fraga told BoardGameGeek that the game has been in the works for 18 years and added that the original idea for the use of columns came from a Michael Jackson video – but failed to clarify which song he meant.

One possible candidate is the 18-minute-long Martin Scorsese-directed video for Bad, which shows Jackson and his gang hiding behind a column at around 7:40.