I pumped out a bunch of games in the last couple of weeks. Besides Lariat and Super Lariat there were Loophole and Anchor, both 2D and 3D versions. I describe these games in my discussion group.
Rule sheets
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Monday, November 3, 2008
New Game: Super Lariat
Super Lariat is unquestionably my most exotic game to date. It's played on a closed, three dimensional surface - an octahedron with cylinders extending outward from three of the four faces. A filled board always produces exactly one winner. The Lariat games were ultra satisfying discoveries. It doesn't get any better than this for me.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
New Game: Lariat
Well, looks like my 4 month hiatus from abstract games is over. Scott Nesin, a very talented programmer and proprietor of Games By Email, added all of my games, renewing my motivation to design. Yesterday I announced my latest game, Lariat, one of my most interesting designs to date. It's played on a 3D surface, a cylinder. There aren't a lot of cylinder games out there, none that I know of actually. I've always wanted one and have tried many times to invent one. Now I've got one and it's hot, if I may say so. Lariat is based on a new geometric principle that I discovered. A randomly filled board produces exactly one winner, a very satisfying property.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Taking a break...
I will have a drastically reduced presence on the Internet for the foreseeable future. I've become involved in some real world activities and I no longer have time to be online 24/7. I still check my email at least once every few days. I'll finish up the games I'm currently playing but I won't start any new ones. Game design is not a priority for me at the moment and it may be some time before I design any more.
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Game Site Surge
There's been a surge in game sites adding their first Mark Steere games so far in 2008. Most recently Vying.org added Cephalopod; GoogleGameCenter.com added Cephalopod, Rush and a number of others; and Igfip.com added Tanbo and Rush. Two more game sites will be adding their first Mark Steere games in the near future. Also, sites which already have my games will be adding more of them.
My games are now on most of the game sites that have non-standard abstract games. There are still a couple of holdouts which I hope to bring on board eventually.
A physics professor recently contacted me asking my permission to program Atoll and other Mark Steere games as part of a grant proposal to the National Science Foundation. He wanted to use my games anonymously in a nation wide program where students would not be told the names of my games or the rules, but would try to figure out the rules by playing the games against a computer. They couldn't be told the names of my games since that would make it easy to cheat by just looking up the rules online.
My requirements of programmers, as explained on all of my rule sheets are: Don't change the names of my games, Don't change the rules, and Attribute the games to me, Mark Steere. This professor's proposal seriously fell short of that.
I told said physics professor that his proposal, while essentially a good, interesting concept was also flawed. It was extremely vulnerable to cheating. Even if the students were not told the name of Atoll for example, there's a three page article on Atoll in the current issue of Games Magazine which is in all of the major bookstores in the country. Atoll is already played on one game site with the certainty of more to come. If you google "hex variant" Atoll shows up on page 5 of the results, and Atoll is still only three months old. As the months pass, Atoll will become ridiculously easy to find using search engines. There' s about 1 degree of separation between students and their friends who are already well aware of Atoll.
Regrettably I had to deny the professor's request. There were just a lot more minuses than pluses. I have to protect my trademarks and copyrights, and this professor didn't seem to be taking my best interests into consideration.
My games are now on most of the game sites that have non-standard abstract games. There are still a couple of holdouts which I hope to bring on board eventually.
A physics professor recently contacted me asking my permission to program Atoll and other Mark Steere games as part of a grant proposal to the National Science Foundation. He wanted to use my games anonymously in a nation wide program where students would not be told the names of my games or the rules, but would try to figure out the rules by playing the games against a computer. They couldn't be told the names of my games since that would make it easy to cheat by just looking up the rules online.
My requirements of programmers, as explained on all of my rule sheets are: Don't change the names of my games, Don't change the rules, and Attribute the games to me, Mark Steere. This professor's proposal seriously fell short of that.
I told said physics professor that his proposal, while essentially a good, interesting concept was also flawed. It was extremely vulnerable to cheating. Even if the students were not told the name of Atoll for example, there's a three page article on Atoll in the current issue of Games Magazine which is in all of the major bookstores in the country. Atoll is already played on one game site with the certainty of more to come. If you google "hex variant" Atoll shows up on page 5 of the results, and Atoll is still only three months old. As the months pass, Atoll will become ridiculously easy to find using search engines. There' s about 1 degree of separation between students and their friends who are already well aware of Atoll.
Regrettably I had to deny the professor's request. There were just a lot more minuses than pluses. I have to protect my trademarks and copyrights, and this professor didn't seem to be taking my best interests into consideration.
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Hex and Y Generalized
I have now discovered the generalized form of Y as well as the generalized form of Hex.
Atoll (generalized form of Hex):
http://www.marksteeregames.com/Atoll_rules.pdf
Begird: (generalized form of Y):
http://www.marksteeregames.com/Begird_rules.pdf
Atoll (generalized form of Hex):
http://www.marksteeregames.com/Atoll_rules.pdf
Begird: (generalized form of Y):
http://www.marksteeregames.com/Begird_rules.pdf
Monday, January 21, 2008
Atoll - A Newly Discovered Principle
Atoll is more than just my latest game. It's a geometric principle of historic proportions. The famous game of Hex is merely a special case of Atoll with four perimeter segments.
Atoll rule sheet:
http://www.marksteeregames.com/Atoll_rules.pdf
Atoll rule sheet:
http://www.marksteeregames.com/Atoll_rules.pdf
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