Looney Labs Icehouse Mailing list Archive

Re: [Icehouse] Possible Zendo game at SDG

  • FromJesse Welton <jwelton@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • DateFri, 10 Mar 2006 11:06:40 -0500
On Fri, Mar 10, 2006 at 02:02:02AM -0700, Aaron Dalton wrote:
> I'm wondering if I should simply *facilitate* online Zendo first, and 
> then see if I can adapt the SDG paradigm.  I really like the Povray 
> approach and Ryan McGuire's Povray includes make it so much easier.  I 
> was thinking I could:
>   - create a koan creator that parses povray files and generates the 
> image files
>   - create a searchable koan library so common koans don't have to be 
> re-created every time
>   - create a koan requestor system so people who can't get the hang of 
> the povray syntax can request a given koan and somebody else can create 
> it for them
>   - provide wiki space for online play in whatever format seems to work 
> best
> 
> If this is something people want and would actually use, then it would 
> be a good starting point.  I could play a few games and try to figure 
> out the best way to adapt it to the SDG paradigm over time.  Feedback 
> anyone?

I'm sure there are some who would.  I wouldn't really be all that
interested, myself.  The results are certainly quite pretty, but the
limited viewing angles and additional spatial possibilities (floating
pieces, for instance) exacerbate the problem of the master having to
make judgement calls about things like which pieces are pointing at
which other pieces.  Putting pieces on a grid might reduce the
richness of the koan space, but it might be worth it to eliminate this
class of problems.  Some of this richness could be restored by
thinking of the display as a vertical plane, so that pieces can be
meaningfully considered above and below each other.  That would allow
a much richer space of stacking configurations, floating pieces, and
the like.  Or, since all players share the same display, one could do
away with the isotropy requirement altogether and allow rules which
distinguish east- and west-pointing pieces.

-Jesse