Icehouse is a turnless abstract strategy game

Strategy game

A strategy game or strategic game is a game in which the players' uncoerced, and often autonomous decision-making skills have a high significance in determining the outcome...

 invented by Andrew Looney

Andrew Looney

Andrew J. Looney , better known as Andy Looney, is an award-winning game designer and computer programmer.- Biography :...

 and John Cooper. It was the first of many games played with Icehouse pieces

Icehouse pieces

Icehouse pieces are pyramid-shaped gaming pieces invented by Andrew Looney and John Cooper in 1987, originally for use in the game of Icehouse.- Description :...

.

Andrew Looney came up with the idea for a game played with pyramids in a series of science fiction

Science fiction

Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...

 short stories he was writing; several of the characters were obsessed with playing the game of Icehouse which had been recovered from the long-dead Martian

Martian

As an adjective, the term martian is used to describe anything pertaining to the planet Mars.However, a Martian is more usually a hypothetical or fictional native inhabitant of the planet Mars. Historically, life on Mars has often been hypothesized, although there is currently no solid evidence of...

 civilization. John Cooper created the rules to make the game playable in real life.

Rules

Icehouse is a tabletop game

Tabletop game

Tabletop game is a general term used to refer to board games, card games, dice games, miniatures wargames, tile-based games and other games that are normally played on a table or other flat surface...

 for two or more players, but played without a board or turns; players can place a piece whenever they want to, and the playing surface is a tabletop or any designated area. Each player has a set or stash of fifteen Icehouse pieces (pyramids of various point values) in their distinctive color, and plays them either defensively (standing upright) or offensively (lying on its side with the point facing a defending piece). The rules (free online or for purchase from Looney Labs

Looney Labs

Looney Labs is a small game company based in College Park, Maryland, USA. It is named after its founders, Andrew Looney and Kristin Looney.- Card games :...

) explain how pieces are iced (captured), over-iced, or taken control of, and address questions that may come up during play. The game ends when the final piece is played onto the game surface or an agreed time limit is reached, and the points of the successful attacking and defending pyramids are totaled up to determine the winner.

Patent

The game was covered by U.S. Patent

Patent

A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....

No. , granted on June 26, 1990, and expired on July 1, 1998.

External links

• Original Icehouse game rules
• http://www.icehousegames.com/ is the Icehouse gateway site, with links to all things Icehouse.
• icehousegames.org, for some other games that can be played with Icehouse.
• http://www.looneylabs.com/ is the homepage of Looney Labs, the company that sells Icehouse.
• Andy Looney has updates on Icehouse among other things that interest him at his online newsletter, at http://www.wunderland.com/ .
• http://www.wunderland.com/icehouse/IcehouseTOC.html is The Icehouse Handbook Online (The Rules)