With a name like that, of course he became a game maker.
May 13, 2016 1:16 AM Subscribe
Based originally on a description in a story by Andy Looney, the game of Icehouse was a board game without a board, played in real time without turns with a set of colored pyramids in three sizes. It still has its fans, and you can find some pretty detailed fan stuff out there on the internet regarding the game of Icehouse. Over the years, though, people found ways to use such enticingly generic game pieces for far, far more…
Among the first other games to be designed for the pyramids was Martian Chess, based on an older idea that the designer Andy Looney had had for Monochrome Chess: possession of the pieces is based entirely on their position on the board, rather than their color, meaning that every time a capture takes place, the capturing piece suddenly belongs to the owner of the captured piece.
Some years later, efforts to find a way to manufacture the pyramids led to giving up on the idea that the pyramids should be solid, as it was far cheaper to produce hollow injection-molded pyramids. This had the neat side effect of making the pyramids stackable and nestable, and is arguably the point where they really stopped being "Icehouse pieces" (as many still refer to them) and became "Looney pyramids" (the preferred name nowadays). Lots of game designs came immediately from this new potential mechanic, including IceTowers, intended as a sort of reimagining of the game described in the original story, and Volcano, designed by Andy's wife, Kristen Looney (previously), among many, many others.
Since then, there have been a great many games developed for the pyramids (literally hundreds of which can be found carefully categorized at Pyramidgames.org), including thoughtful games of inductive logic, light and quick games of physical coordination, chaotic games of robot programming, a game that can make a very plausible claim to be "the true space chess", a quick and simple game of shock waves rippling out from pieces as they're placed, a game I have described to friends as "Risk, except it ends," and far, far more.
Some of these games can be played for free in your browser with no plugins over at Super Duper Games. Binary Homeworlds is a particularly good fit, as the correspondence game structure works nicely for when you want to really think your moves through.
Interestingly, a few games have come full-circle and been published as stand-alone packaged games with specialized pieces: Penguin Soccer, Robosoccer (a reimplementation of Mundialito), and Star Fleet Scramble (a reimplementation of Pikemen).
Interested and want to see some games in action being played? Andy and Kristen Looney put together a YouTube channel for their (recently finished) Kickstarter, with videos of them doing playthroughs of over twenty different games, among other stuff.
And above all else… don't forget to have fun!
Among the first other games to be designed for the pyramids was Martian Chess, based on an older idea that the designer Andy Looney had had for Monochrome Chess: possession of the pieces is based entirely on their position on the board, rather than their color, meaning that every time a capture takes place, the capturing piece suddenly belongs to the owner of the captured piece.
Some years later, efforts to find a way to manufacture the pyramids led to giving up on the idea that the pyramids should be solid, as it was far cheaper to produce hollow injection-molded pyramids. This had the neat side effect of making the pyramids stackable and nestable, and is arguably the point where they really stopped being "Icehouse pieces" (as many still refer to them) and became "Looney pyramids" (the preferred name nowadays). Lots of game designs came immediately from this new potential mechanic, including IceTowers, intended as a sort of reimagining of the game described in the original story, and Volcano, designed by Andy's wife, Kristen Looney (previously), among many, many others.
Since then, there have been a great many games developed for the pyramids (literally hundreds of which can be found carefully categorized at Pyramidgames.org), including thoughtful games of inductive logic, light and quick games of physical coordination, chaotic games of robot programming, a game that can make a very plausible claim to be "the true space chess", a quick and simple game of shock waves rippling out from pieces as they're placed, a game I have described to friends as "Risk, except it ends," and far, far more.
Some of these games can be played for free in your browser with no plugins over at Super Duper Games. Binary Homeworlds is a particularly good fit, as the correspondence game structure works nicely for when you want to really think your moves through.
Interestingly, a few games have come full-circle and been published as stand-alone packaged games with specialized pieces: Penguin Soccer, Robosoccer (a reimplementation of Mundialito), and Star Fleet Scramble (a reimplementation of Pikemen).
Interested and want to see some games in action being played? Andy and Kristen Looney put together a YouTube channel for their (recently finished) Kickstarter, with videos of them doing playthroughs of over twenty different games, among other stuff.
And above all else… don't forget to have fun!
Binary Homeworlds has for some time now had the claim of my favorite pure strategy game.* I rather dislike chess, but Homeworlds seems to push all of my strategy game buttons. (I think some of it's the big swingy plays you can make; chess doesn't have moves that can literally reshape the entire playfield.) I have a set of pyramids suitable for playing Binary Homeworlds that I keep in my coat pocket at all times.
(*As of recently, it is no longer my favorite tabletop spaceship game; Xia: Legends of a Drift System has captured my heart as a gamer and my awe as a game designer. That game is beautiful in every sense of the word.)
posted by NMcCoy at 6:04 AM on May 13, 2016 [1 favorite]
(*As of recently, it is no longer my favorite tabletop spaceship game; Xia: Legends of a Drift System has captured my heart as a gamer and my awe as a game designer. That game is beautiful in every sense of the word.)
posted by NMcCoy at 6:04 AM on May 13, 2016 [1 favorite]
I'm still new to Homeworlds so my proudest moment was causing a catastrophe on my own homeworld to at least delay losing by a few more turns. Such an elegant game design. Man.
posted by DoctorFedora at 6:58 AM on May 13, 2016
posted by DoctorFedora at 6:58 AM on May 13, 2016
Here's my adaption of _why's Kaxxt game to icehouse peices. https://joeyh.name/code/kaxxt/ Kaxxt teaches some basic programming concepts.
posted by joeyh at 7:40 AM on May 13, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by joeyh at 7:40 AM on May 13, 2016 [1 favorite]
Wonderful post! Readers may also know Looney Labs from the game Fluxx, which I think they created.
I haven't played many of these icehouse games, but Zendo has still got to be one of my all-time favorite games. I didn't know it was called inductive logic when first playing, but recognizing that way of thinking and seeing it in a game was this sort of epiphany like it expanded my vision of what was possible in games. (What else would be in that category for me, I wonder? Not many, probably Andrew Plotkin's Spider and Web, though for very different reasons).
The thing with Zendo is it relies on the players to balance the difficulty by having the current master pick a rule that's not too hard and not too easy, which can be hard to do because it depends on the players, how they think, their background, what rules they've seen, what the last few rules have been, and many other wishywashy factors. But that sort of means there's an art to it, too.
The best rule I ever experienced, which hit that perfect sweet spot of being just as difficult as you can take (but no more) for where our group was at the time and what kind of rules we were primed for, was, "A koan has a Bhudda nature if and only if... (hover over to read)." There just seems to be no pattern to the koans, like it's just completely random... These complex rules start developing in your mind, only to fall apart immediately with testing. Until, finally, after almost giving up many times, you finally think "what if... could it be that simple?" And the ultimate simplicity of it only adds to the beauty and satisfaction of the experience.
Zendo also has one of my favorite write-ups about the process of game design, a design history by the creator.
These icehouse pieces and the whole, like, world of games built up around them is just such great fodder for a game design geek like myself. Exploring these games and trying them out is just this great and natural way to discuss game rules, play with them and explore how they work. It just makes me happy!
posted by Flaffigan at 9:04 AM on May 13, 2016 [2 favorites]
I haven't played many of these icehouse games, but Zendo has still got to be one of my all-time favorite games. I didn't know it was called inductive logic when first playing, but recognizing that way of thinking and seeing it in a game was this sort of epiphany like it expanded my vision of what was possible in games. (What else would be in that category for me, I wonder? Not many, probably Andrew Plotkin's Spider and Web, though for very different reasons).
The thing with Zendo is it relies on the players to balance the difficulty by having the current master pick a rule that's not too hard and not too easy, which can be hard to do because it depends on the players, how they think, their background, what rules they've seen, what the last few rules have been, and many other wishywashy factors. But that sort of means there's an art to it, too.
The best rule I ever experienced, which hit that perfect sweet spot of being just as difficult as you can take (but no more) for where our group was at the time and what kind of rules we were primed for, was, "A koan has a Bhudda nature if and only if... (hover over to read)." There just seems to be no pattern to the koans, like it's just completely random... These complex rules start developing in your mind, only to fall apart immediately with testing. Until, finally, after almost giving up many times, you finally think "what if... could it be that simple?" And the ultimate simplicity of it only adds to the beauty and satisfaction of the experience.
Zendo also has one of my favorite write-ups about the process of game design, a design history by the creator.
These icehouse pieces and the whole, like, world of games built up around them is just such great fodder for a game design geek like myself. Exploring these games and trying them out is just this great and natural way to discuss game rules, play with them and explore how they work. It just makes me happy!
posted by Flaffigan at 9:04 AM on May 13, 2016 [2 favorites]
I backed the recent Kickstarter, but had no idea about most of this. Thanks for the post.
I'll definitely be checking out the Pyramidgames.org site once I receive my Looney Pyramids!
posted by Laura in Canada at 9:42 AM on May 13, 2016
I'll definitely be checking out the Pyramidgames.org site once I receive my Looney Pyramids!
posted by Laura in Canada at 9:42 AM on May 13, 2016
I really enjoy the youtube channel. What a charming collection of people! Very inventive set of games with very simple equipment.
posted by Slap*Happy at 11:46 AM on May 13, 2016
posted by Slap*Happy at 11:46 AM on May 13, 2016
Thanks, this is a great post!
posted by threeants at 4:49 PM on May 13, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by threeants at 4:49 PM on May 13, 2016 [2 favorites]
(What else would be in that category for me, I wonder? Not many, probably Andrew Plotkin's Spider and Web, though for very different reasons).
Interesting that you should mention him, because Andrew Plotkin was/is a friend of the Looneys', and was a major guy in the Icehouse community.
posted by rifflesby at 6:57 PM on May 16, 2016 [1 favorite]
Interesting that you should mention him, because Andrew Plotkin was/is a friend of the Looneys', and was a major guy in the Icehouse community.
posted by rifflesby at 6:57 PM on May 16, 2016 [1 favorite]
Whoooooaa, you're kind of blowing my mind right now rifflesby... That's wild, so strange that game should come to mind, I had no idea there was this other connection. Thanks for mentioning it, I feel like I've tapped into some true undercurrent of reality.
posted by Flaffigan at 2:05 PM on May 19, 2016
posted by Flaffigan at 2:05 PM on May 19, 2016
« Older A Black Eye For Open Science | Check in with the velociraptor at the world’s... Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by newdaddy at 3:01 AM on May 13, 2016 [3 favorites]