About Icehouse
Icehouse is an abstract game designed by John Cooper and Andrew Looney. It is played with a set of 60 pyramids. There are four colors in the base set--red, yellow, green, and blue. Each color has five large pyramids, five medium, and five small. No board is used--just the pyramids and a flat space. No turns are used--everyone plays at once.
The original game made the Games 100
list, and is patented. Sets are now available from Looney
Laboratories.
From the early days of Icehouse's first release, there has been something about those pyramids that inspired people to create other games to play with them. They look cool. The original game that used them was completely novel. And gamers like to tinker.
By the time the current edition of Icehouse was released, it came out as Icehouse: The Martian Chess Set. There were rules for four games-- Martian Chess, Ice Towers, Ice Traders, and Zarcana. And the back of the rules listed nine more games (including original Icehouse) found on the Web.
But the games people play just keep on coming...
About These Pages
There are several pages about Icehouse games here.
Recommended Icehouse Games: This page links an Alternate Pyramids list of 12 different Icehouse games to try, together with links to the twelve available in the excellent book Playing With Pyramids. It cannot hold every Icehouse game worth playing. But every game here seems to be worth the effort.
World Icehouse Rankings: With a championship tournament having been held 13 times, and a traditional West Coast counterpart on four occasions, Icehouse may someday become a competitive mind-sport like chess and bridge. This page applies modified Elo-style rankings to all major tourney results since 1998 to rank the best Icehousers in the world.
New Icehouse Games: There was a flood of Icehouse games in 2001 and 2002. It was hard to track them, and often not worth the effort. There are now a couple of new listings on this page. It is being rebuilt to help Icehouse game designers get their games into the hands of those who might help test and ultimately spread them.
Taxonomy of Icehouse Games: It's not every game for Icehouse, but it's a lot. Over 100 games are linked here. And classifying them, so you can find similar games or games for X players or Y stashes, has been fun and is an ongoing effort.
Glenn's Icehouse Games: Most of Glenn's designs for Icehouse have rule pages here. Kotra is best; Skurðir and Efni are close behind. Litróf won honorable mention in a chess variant design competition, but is for a narrow audience. Töframenn and IceFu are new. Nomice is a curiosity--the first Internet game of Nomice started a bit after 9 am on 11 September 2001 and wound up being themed around the Towers of Mars. Alheimur is a disappointment, but stays because the idea still has potential.
- Alheimur
Game of space expansion for 2-6. Needs four stashes, an Aquarius deck, and three dice. - Efni
Game of collecting weird sets of stuff for 2-6. Needs one stash per player and a Fluxx deck. - IceFu
Simple martial arts contest for two inspired by the I Ching and Taiji. Needs two stashes and an opaque container. - Kotra
Backgammon-like race game for two. Needs two stashes, a chessboard, and two four-sided (pyramids!) dice. - Litróf
Wild chess variation. Needs six stashes (standard red, yellow, green, and blue, plus the new purple and orange) and a chessboard. - Nomice
Hybrid of the philosophical rule-changing game Nomic with Icehouse for any number. Needs whatever the players decide. - Skurðir
Transportation game along a canal network built by 2-4 players. Needs four stashes. - Töframenn
Two-player battle game of wizards and the elements. Needs a chessboard and two markers. (Players each have one set of 15 pyramids. That «stash» may contain pyramids of any combination of the nine colors.)
Guest Host: We have started to host an occasional game for other designers here on our site.
- Martian Greenhouse
Becca Stallings has designed a challenging solitaire Icehouse game of genetics. Use four to six stashes (opaques increase the challenge) and breed flowers to order. - Hostages
Travis Larchuk's latest two-player game sends your pyramids across the board to capture opponents and bring all five of your small hostages back home. It uses two stashes and a chessboard.
More Ice-Links
