Looney Labs Icehouse Mailing list Archive

Re: [Icehouse] Possible Zendo game at SDG

  • From"Ryan McGuire and Kerry Breitenbach" <kerry_and_ryan@xxxxxxx>
  • DateFri, 3 Mar 2006 23:15:08 -0500
2) Turns. Much the game can be language neutral/silent. You only have to put your guess into words when you want to spend a guessing stone to try to win the game.

See http://www.wunderland.com/WTS/Kory/Games/Zendo/HowToPlay.html

1) That is a pretty big simplification from the standard game. I think it lose a lot of the "juiciness" of the original. However, I'd but that it would "work". People have used the basic Zendo rules on all sorts of "koan spaces": words, sentences, objects we found in my desk at work.

Then again, maybe some games weren't meant to be played online.

Ryan

----- Original Message ----- From: "Aaron Dalton" <aaron@xxxxxxxxxx> To: "SDG-discuss" <sdg-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>; "Icehouse Discussion List" <icehouse@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, March 03, 2006 9:36 PM
Subject: [Icehouse] Possible Zendo game at SDG


Having finally purchased my own pyramids and started playing with them, I am very interested in possibly adding Zendo to the SDG lineup in some fashion or other. The problem is, I have never played before and am unfamiliar with how the game flows. I am hoping to get some good feedback.

1) I realize that koans can be very freeform. By necessity however, an online implementation would impose some basic restrictions on the types of koans that could be generated. My current plan is to design a set of text commands that can be used to auto-generate PNG images of various pyramid configurations. The restrictions that immediatly come to mind are the following:
  - Pyramids could probably only face up, N, E, S, and W.  No leaning =(
- Multiple pyramids would likely need to be arranged in a square grid-like relationship to one another and not in nice circles or wavy lines.

Would such restrictions make the game significantly less playable? While a drag-and-drop method of koan generation would be ideal, it is highly problematic from my standpoint. Would a text interface be too much of a barrier if made as simple as possible?

2) As for gameflow itself, can somebody explain to me how it actually works? Are there "turns" or is it pretty free-flow? When a student presents a koan to the master or fellow students, must they state explicitely in words as well what they think the buddah nature is as well.

Anyway, I have to run but I think these explain my primary questions. Any feedback you could offer would be great. I'm really hopeful I can come up with something.

Cheers!
--
Aaron Dalton       |   Super Duper Games
aaron@xxxxxxxxxx   |   http://superdupergames.org
_______________________________________________
Icehouse mailing list
Icehouse@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://lists.looneylabs.com/mailman/listinfo/icehouse