Icehouse pieces
Icehouse pieces, or Icehouse Pyramids, Treehouse pieces, Treehouse Pyramids and officially Looney Pyramids, are nestable and stackable pyramid-shaped gaming pieces and a game system. The game system was invented by Andrew Looney and John Cooper in 1987, originally for use in the game of Icehouse.
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 of the short story requested to learn how to play the game. Thus actual rules were invented for Icehouse by Andrew Looney, Kristin Wunderlich and John Cooper, then plastic pyramid pieces were made to play the game. The first commercially available set were solid non-stackable pyramids released in 1989 with only 100 sets made. The pieces were made from resin in his apartment, which upset the landlord. 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. Looney then created the IceTowers game which used stacking pyramids leading to a change in the pyramid pieces' specification for stacking. The four games were released as a part of, which was the first Icehouse pyramid system release by Looney Labs. In 2001, Icehouse: The Martian Chess Set won the Origins Award for Best Abstract Board Game of 2000. Icehouse was recognized as a game system in the game design textbook Rules of Play by Katue Salen and Eric Zimmerman.
By June 21, 2002, Icehouse pieces were being sold in tubes containing a stash, or 15 pyramids of a single color, with nine colors available. Labs then released the book Playing With Pyramids, which contained a dozen games by the Looneys, Cooper, Kory Heath and Jacob Davenport.
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.
Original prototype under the name of Pyramid Throwdown in 2015, Pyramid Arcade was launched as a Kickstarter campaign on April 5, 2016. 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
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 of the same color and five of each three sizes: five large 3-point pyramids, five medium 2-point pyramids, and five small 1-point pyramids. The stacked and nested feature is not used in the original Icehouse game, but is taken advantage of in some of the other Icehouse-based games listed below.Icehouse pieces were, for many years, sold as tubes containing one stash of durable crystal-look plastic pieces in one of ten available colors. There was also a less expensive starter set called Origami Icehouse, made of cardstock in four colors, which one punched out and folded into the pyramid shapes. In 2006, Looney Labs began selling Icehouse pieces as Treehouse sets, which are multicolored sets of 15 pyramids: five colors, each color having one each of the three sizes. Looney Labs has also sold boxed sets for Zendo and IceTowers; the latter contained cyan pieces. The Icehouse website also has instructions for making your own pieces. Looney Labs has licensed Crystal Caste to make regulation-sized Icehouse pieces out of semiprecious stone. Beginning with its Looney Pyramids relaunch set, IceDice, the sets are packaged in pyramid shaped nylon zipper bag until Pyramid Arcade.
Releases
IceHouse Games
!colspan=4|Looney Labs stack-able
!colspan=4|Treehouse
!colspan=4|Looney Pyramids
Games
As a game system, Icehouse pieces can be used to play many different abstract strategy games. Most games need at least two colors, and some require other readily available equipment such as glass stones or a checkerboard.| Game | Year | Publication | Designer | description/note |
| Icehouse | PwP, PP1 | Andrew Looney and John Cooper | ||
| Martian Chess | MCS, PwP, 3H, PP1, PA, PQ | Andrew Looney | ||
| Zarcana | 1996 | MCS | John Cooper | an early form of Gnostica |
| Pikemen | 1997 | PwP | Jacob Davenport | |
| Thin Ice | 1997 | PwP | Jacob Davenport | |
| IceTowers | 1999 | MCS, PwP, PP1, PA | Andrew Looney | a stacking game |
| IceTraders | 1999 | MCS | John Cooper | an early version of Homeworlds |
| Volcano | 2000 | PwP, PA | Kristin Looney | |
| Zagami | 2000 | PwP | Kory Heath | |
| Gnostica | 2001 | PwP | John Cooper, Kory Heath, Kristin Matherly, Jacob Davenport | |
| Homeworlds | 2001 | PwP, PP1, PA, PQ | John Cooper | a 4X conquest and abstract space battle/exploration game |
| Martian Backgammon | 2001 | PwP | Kristin Looney | |
| RAMbots | 2001 | PwP | Kory Heath | |
| Zendo | 2001 | PwP | Kory Heath | Origins Award: Best Abstract Board Game of 2003 |
| Binary Homeworlds | 2004 | 3H | John Cooper | variant of Homeworlds |
| Martian Coasters | 2006 | PP1, PA | Andrew Looney | |
| Treehouse | 2006 | Treehouse, PP1, PA | Andrew Looney | a matching game; Origins Award for Best Board Game of 2006 |
| Black ICE | 2007 | 3H, PP1, PA | Andrew Looney | |
| World War 5 | 2008 | PP1, PA | Andrew Looney | |
| Zark City | 2008 | PP1, PA | Andrew Looney | Inspired by Zarcana and Gnostica |
| Pharaoh | 2010 | PP1, Treehouse 2nd Edition, PA | Andrew Looney | |
| Caldera | 2011 | PP1 | Kristin Looney | variant of Volcano |
| IceDice | 2011 | PP1, IceDice, PA, PQ | Andrew Looney | |
| Launchpad 23 | 2011 | PP1, IceDice, PA | Andrew Looney | collecting game |
| Pink Hijinks | Pink Hijinks, PA | Andrew Looney | "king of the hill" strategy | |
| Color Wheel | PA | Andrew Looney | ||
| Give or Take | PA | Andrew Looney | ||
| Lunar Invaders | PA | Andrew Looney | variant of Cosmic Coasters | |
| Petal Battle | PA | Andrew Looney | ||
| Petri Dish | PA | Andrew Looney | ||
| Powerhouse | PA | Andrew Looney | ||
| Pyramid-Sham-Bo | PA | Andrew Looney | ||
| Verticality | PA | Andrew Looney | ||
| Twin Win | PA, PQ | Andrew Looney | ||
| Nomids | 2020 | PQ | Andrew Looney |