Icehouse pieces, or Icehouse Pyramids,
History
Andrew Looney in 1987 penned a sci-fi short story, "The Empty City", that included a game called Icehouse, an ancient Martian game. Readers requested to learn how to play the game. Thus actual rules were invented for Icehouse by Andrew Looney, Kristin Wunderlich (then future wife of Looney) and John Cooper, then plastic pyramid pieces were made to play the game. After several years, Looney shut down Icehouse Games, Inc. and soon started another gaming company, Looney Laboratories, in 1996.
Additional games beyond Icehouse were created including Martian Chess, Zendo, and Homeworlds. Icehouse was recognized as a game system in the game design textbook Rules of Play by Katue Salen and Eric Zimmerman.
In 2004, the Zendo boxed set won Best Abstract Board Game of 2003, In 2005 the set won the Mensa Select Game Award. While in 2007, Treehouse won the Origins Award for Best Board Game of 2006.
Looney Labs relaunched the Icehouse pieces as "Looney Pyramids" with new packaging with its IceDice set in June 2011 followed by Pink Hijinks in December 2012. By 2013, the IcehouseGames.org website listed 400 games playable with icehouse pyramids. The new boxed pyramid set was funded in under 12 hours. Racking up $150 thousand total, the set shipped to supporters in fall 2016. Looney Labs put their Pyramid Quartet, Nomids, Ice Duo, Martian Chess and Homeworlds, together up on Kickstarter in February 2020, which was funded in three hours.
Description
Icehouse pieces in paper and plastic|thumb
The pieces are four-sided pyramids that can nest and stack with pipping from 1 to 3 at the base. A group of three pyramids, one of each size, is called a "trio." Each "stash" or set of Icehouse pieces consists of five trios, or fifteen pyramids (variously called pieces, pyramids, or minions) of the same color and five of each three sizes:
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IceHouse Games
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| Icehouse (The Original Black Box)
|rowspan=2| standard color stash
|rowspan=4| Icehouse ||
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|rowspan=2| Paper Icehouse ("Origami" Icehouse)
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|| Neon stash
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| Xyloid Icehouse || wood standard color stash ||
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Looney Labs stack-able
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| The Martian Chess Set (MCS) || 2 standard color stash in plastic box || Martian Chess, IceTowers, IceTraders & Zarcana ||
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| Pink Treehouse || 1 pink stash || Treehouse ||
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Looney Pyramids
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| IceDice || 2 rainbow stashes, two custom dice
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|Pyramid Arcade (PA)
|90 pyramids: 10 colors (rainbow & xeno) 3 trio each; 8 mini gameboards & 3 large boards; cards: Zark City (5 suited square deck), Twin Win cards, Pyramid Arcade cards; 9 six-sided dice: 3 standard, 3 lightning, 3 others; a drawstring bag, a turn token
|22 games: Black Ice, Color Wheel, Give or Take, Hijinks, Homeworlds, Ice Dice, Ice Towers, Launchpad 23, Looney Ludo, Lunar Invaders, Martian Chess, Petal Battle, Petri Dish, Pharaoh, Powerhouse, Pyramid-Sham-Bo, Twin Win, Treehouse, Verticality, Volcano, World War 5, Zark City
| Nomids or chrome silver
|Jinxx
|May 3, 2024
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|World War 5 || rowspan=2|2008 || rowspan=2|PP1, PA ||
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|Zark City || Inspired by Zarcana and Gnostica
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|Pharaoh