History timeline

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A History of Icehouse games

1987

  • Andrew Looney writes The Empty City. He and John Cooper create a game similar to the one described in the book. At some point not long after this, Andy, the future Kristin Looney, and his friends start casting the first pyramids from resin in Andy's apartment. The resin fumes lead to many tenant complaints, and Andy eventually moves out.

1988

  • September: The first known photograph of Icehouse is taken. It's a three-way game between Andy, John Cooper, and Some Other Guy, held at the Maryland RenFaire. You can see the photo at this WWN article.

1989

1990

  • March: Hypothermia #1 is published.
  • May: Hypothermia #2 is published.
  • May 26-27: Ruth Conley wins the 2nd International Icehouse Tournament. To date, she was the last woman to win the IIT. Stevyn Travillian wins the Cooler Than Ice award.
  • June 26: U.S. Patent #4,936,585 is granted, protecting Icehouse.
  • November: Hypothermia #3 is published.

1991

  • May: Hypothermia #4 is published.
  • May 25-26: Keith Baker wins the 3rd International Icehouse Tournament, and the Cooler Than Ice award.
  • The Empty City stories are published as a novel.

1992

  • March: Hypothermia #5 is published.
  • Wooden pieces (aka: Xyloid pieces) are made available.
  • The Walls rule is removed from Icehouse
  • May: Hypothermia #6 is published.
  • May 23-24: Bates Team wins the 4th International Icehouse Tournament. Dan Efran wins the Cooler Than Ice award.
  • June: Hypothermia #7 is published.
  • December: Hypothermia #8 is published.

1993

  • May: Hypothermia #9 is published.
  • May: Dan Russett wins the 5th International Icehouse Tournament. Frank Cooper wins the Cooler Than Ice award.
  • November: Hypothermia #10 is published.

1994

  • June: Dan Russett wins the 6th International Icehouse Tournament, the first repeat champion in Icehouse history, and to date the only person to win consecutive IITs. David Hendrickson wins the Cooler Than Ice award.

1995

  • Andy's videogame Icebreaker is published by Magnet.
  • April: Hypothermia #11 is published.
  • "Unbreakable" solid plastic pieces are briefly available.
  • May: Elliott "Eeyore" Evans wins the 7th International Icehouse Tournament. Greg Crowe wins the Cooler Than Ice award.

1996

1997

1998

  • July 4: Elliott "Eeyore" Evans wins the 9th International Icehouse Tournament.

1999

  • May 30: Joseph Grayson wins the West Coast Icehouse 1 tournament. Lindy Laurent wins the Cooler Than Ice award.
  • July 3: Andrew Looney wins the 10th International Icehouse Tournament. Elliott "Eeyore" Evans wins the Cooler Than Ice award.
  • October 15: The first injection-molded plastic pieces are manufactured at KLON. Here's an article about it.
  • November: Looney Labs releases Icehouse: The Martian Chess Set. Making use of the new stackability of the molded pieces, rules are included for the first stacking game for Icehouse pieces, IceTowers.

2000

  • April: Black and clear pyramids debut in Black Ice, along with an early chessboard bandana.
  • July 15: Elliott "Eeyore" Evans wins the 11th International Icehouse Tournament. Evans is the first person to win the IIT three times. Eric Zuckerman wins the Cooler Than Ice award.
  • Robert Szasz wins the West Coast Icehouse 2 tournament. Joseph Grayson wins the Cooler Than Ice award.
  • Kristin Looney designs Volcano, using all six then-available colors. The 5x5 board used for the game becomes known as the Volcano board

2001

  • July 7: Jacob Davenport wins the 12th International Icehouse Tournament. Mike Sugarbaker wins the Cooler Than Ice award.
  • Hypothermia #14 is published. The timer rule is officially added to Icehouse.
  • Bob Galloway wins the West Coast Icehouse 3 tournament, and wins the Cooler Than Ice award.
  • November: Looney Labs starts selling a-la carte stash tubes, introducing purple and orange pyramids.
  • Zarcana's evolution into Gnostica by Cooper & Co. nears completion.

2002

  • March 5: U.S. Patent #6,352,262 is granted, protecting IceTowers.
  • July 6: Liam Bryan wins the 13th International Icehouse Tournament, and the Cooler Than Ice award.
  • Hypothermia #15 is published.
  • Playing with Pyramids is published.
  • Bob Galloway wins the West Coast Icehouse 4 tournament. A.L. Spehr wins the Cooler Than Ice award.

2003

  • The boxed set of Zendo is released at Origins.
  • July 6: Jacob Davenport wins the 14th International Icehouse Tournament. Yvonne Kelly wins the Cooler Than Ice award.
  • July: ICE-7 is published.
  • The boxed set of IceTowers is released in time for the holidays, introducing the cyan pyramids.

2004

  • June 26: Eric Zuckerman wins the 15th International Icehouse Tournament. Julia Tenney wins the Cooler Than Ice award.
  • September 11: Sprawl is declared the winner of the 1st Ice Game Design Competition (IGDC).
  • December 4: Undercut is declared the winner of the 2nd IGDC.

2005

  • March 9: Hextris is declared the winner of the 3rd IGDC.
  • April: Aaron Dalton launches Super Duper Games, which eventually hosts online versions of several Icehouse games.
  • April 25: IcehouseGames.org established.
  • June 6: Torpedo wins the 4th IGDC.
  • Jacob Davenport wins the 16th International Icehouse Tournament. Davenport becomes the first person to win the IIT four times. Jesse Welton wins the Cooler Than Ice award.
  • Hypothermia #16 is published, and includes the official rules for the first four IGDC winners.

2006

  • Looney Labs introduces Treehouse at the GAMA Trade Show in Las Vegas. For the first time, Icehouse pieces are not sold in stash form. The Treehouse Revolution breaks the stash-based paradigm that Icehouse game designers had been using for nearly a decade.
  • Gray pyramids debut as Volcano caps (and as a Rabbit promo).
  • July 2: First official Treehouse Tournament held at Origins.
  • July 2: Julian Lighton wins the 17th International Icehouse Tournament. Josh Drobina wins the "Cooler Than Ice" award.
  • November: Martian Coasters is published. A promo 5th coaster is released the following month.

2007

  • Andy Looney develops Black Ice for inclusion in 3HOUSE, replacing a spot reserved for simplified IceTowers.
  • July 28: Oldergames.com publishes Icebreaker II, the unfinished sequel to the original pyramid smashing video game. It was first new release for the obsolete 3DO console in over a decade.
  • Treehouse wins the Origins Award for Best Board Game of 2006.
  • Timothy Hunt wins the XVIII International Icehouse Tourmament, and the Cooler Than Ice award.
  • The Icehouse Game Design Competition is relaunched in the Summer '07 season, coordinated by David Artman through this wiki. Pylon, by Doug Orleans, is declared the winner on September 23.

2008

  • February 20: Martian 12s, by Avri Klemer, is declared the winner of the Icehouse Game Design Competition, Winter 2008.
  • In preparation for an upcoming 3HOUSE package, Andy Looney designs Zark City, a reduction of Zarcana into a smaller, simpler game that uses playing cards.
  • June: Tucker Taylor wins the XIX International Icehouse Tournament, held at Origins. Kat Dutton wins the Cooler Than Ice award.
  • July: Ambush, by Jason Spears, wins the Icehouse Game Design Competition, Summer 2008.
  • November: A free copy of board and rules for World War 5 is mailed to all on the Looney Labs mailing list as their Holiday Gift for 2008.
  • December: Pink Treehouse arrives on store shelves. Containing the eponymous 12th color of pyramids, proceeds from this special Treehouse package go towards fighting breast cancer.

2009

See also: New in 2009
  • Apophis wins the Spring 2009 IDGC.
  • June: Jacob Davenport wins tthe XX International Icehouse Tournament. To date, he is the only person to win five IITs, and has been the IIT champion more often than any other human being. Timothy Eller wins the Cooler Than Ice award.
  • Nothing Beats a Large debuts as the annual Looney Labs holiday gift to fans.

2010

See also: New in 2010
  • June, Origins:
    • Quicksand wins the "Best of 2009" award.
    • Ryan McGuire wins the XXI IIT, and the Cooler Than Ice award.

A History of IcehouseGames.org

2005

  • Mike Sugarbaker founds the domain and establishes the Wiki
  • Stuff periodically breaks thereafter. The end.

2007

  • A big MediaWiki update fixes many longstanding errors with the site. Image uploads resume, and the icehousegames.org logo returns.
  • August: The wiki is used to organize and conduct the Summer 2007 IGDC.
  • September: The 200th Icehouse game is added to the wiki.

2008

  • The Winter 2008 IGDC is organized through the wiki, and the Summer 2008 IGDc is planned here as well.
  • Brian Campbell succeeds Mike Sugarbaker as the Supreme Curator.

2009

  • January: The 250th Icehouse game is added to the wiki.
  • December: The 300th Icehouse game is added to the wiki, thanks to student use of the wiki to coordinate their classroom game designs.
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