Introduction: Papercraft IceHouse Game Pieces

By

What are they?

Looney pyramids are the most recent version of Icehouse pieces. Icehouse pieces were originally created for the game Icehouse, A very confusing abstract strategy game.

The pyramids themselves come in three sizes, each with its own point value (Also known as pips) . the small, medium, and large pyramids have value points of 1,2,and 3 respectively.The pyramids nest perfectly in any combination. The pyramids come in sets of 15 with 5 colors and 3 sizes each. These sets are called stashes .

What can you play with them?

With one stash of pyramids you are able to play many (around 20 official and player created games) .The introductory game to play with one stash is TreeHouse a game for 2-4 players using a dice.

One of the most popular called Zendo,requires 4-5 stashes (5 ideally) and is for 3-4 players .In Zendo, one player makes a secret rule.and the others guess it. I'll go more in depth about Zendo in my Zendo tutorial (Coming soon)

Additionally, Icehouse pieces were made similar to a deck of cards in that there are infinite possibilities of making games with dice, boards, other pieces and cards.

Why paper?

You can easily acquire Looney Pyramids online for 15-20$ for a game of ice dice which comes with 2 stashes. However, paying 40-50$ to play a game of Zendo is quite a bit of money.

With paper you can make a quick cheap copy of pieces without making the investment needed. Plus these pyramids are fully customizable.


In this tutorial I will be making 1 stash of pyramid pieces pieces.

Step 1: Materials

To make these pyramids you will need :

  • Cardstock,Colored paper, or cardboard. (Any thick paper will work)
  • Scissors or Exacto knife
  • Pyramid template PDF
  • A Pen (For scoring the folds
  • Colored pencils or markers
  • Glue or tape. (I use hot glue)

Attachments

Step 2: Print the Template PDF

The template makes 6 Trios of pyramids. print two of the templates for two stashes.

Step 3: Cut the Pyramids

Carefully cut the pyramids out. you can use an Exacto knife and cutting board or scissors. Make sure to cut them on the lines without drifting or they will sit crooked.

Step 4: Coloring Time!

Color the pyramids on the blank side. The original colors are : red, blue, yellow,green and black. The expansion colors (Xeno colors) are: cyan,orange,purple,white and clear( you could cut little windows to make clear or color a different color such as pink). Alternatively you could color patterns, however most instructions will refer to the pyramids by the original colors.

Step 5: Scoring and Folding

Use the pen on the back to trace the lines on the template. This helps folding the lines on the paper. Fold the paper both ways to ensure crisp folds.

Step 6: Gluing

Putting the glue on the colored side of the flap, carefully apply a small amount of glue. If you are using tape, tape the inside of the flap to the white side of the template.

If you are using hot glue, you can reinforce your pyramids by putting a small amount of glue on the inside edges and faces of the template.

Step 7: Trim and Add Pips

If your pyramids are crooked, simply cut off some paper on the bottom to level it out. Add the point values, they can look like anything. I simply used tallys. The small get 1 pip, the medium 2 and the large get 3 pips.

Step 8: Stacking Time!

Well that's it! For Zendo you need markers, however you can use anything you have around the house.

Treehouse uses a special dice but you can just use a plain ol' dice with the following modifications :

1 Tip

2 Aim

3 Hop

4 Dig

5 Swap

6 Wild

Instructions to Treehouse can be found Here

Zendo tutorial will be my next instructable!