PROTOZOA
An ICEHOUSE game, by Kerin Schiesser
(based on Eric Zuckerman's brainstorm of basing a game on Conway's Game of Life).
This game is similar to, though with distinct differences, from my other game, Martian Life

What you need: A chessboard. A stash of 15 Icehouse Pieces per player.

The Most Evolved player goes second. Have fun deciding which is which.

Goal: To create the most successful multi-celled colony creature by placement of your single-celled creatures. "Successful" is defined as being the first to build a group creature with 15 pip-points worth of cells. This can require as few as 5 3pointers, or a full 10 pieces if you use all 5 smalls and all 5 mediums. Any contiguous grouping totalling 15 points is allowed. See below for definition of "group."

Multi-celled Creature, AKA "Group:" i.e., pieces in a mass, connected either orthogonally or diagonally to at least one other piece in the 'organism' (see illustrated example of Blue and Red wins below). Any possible number of forkings are allowed, so long as every piece in your "group" is connected to at least one other piece of the group. Two groups which total 15 pipcounts will not win - all 15 points must be pieces in your mass. However, you can have extraneous extra pieces on the board which do not add to your total for the win.

Pieces must survive the Cull to count for the win.

Start positions for 2 player game
BASIC MECHANISM:

Place a any piece on the board from your stash, or mutate a piece by one size. A mutation may be either a promotion or a demotion of the existing piece. Then see if it survives.

Pieces survive or die, depending on how much support or pressure they get from their neighbors. Little pieces need at least 1 neighbor, but can't stand more than three. Each size tolerates a different range (see table).

SURVIVAL TABLE:
Size Happy Value
Pawn
[Virus]
1-3 1 pt
Drone
[Bacterium]
3-5 2 pt
Queen
[Amoeba]
5-7 3 pt
Center Piece has 5 neighbors: it's own pieces an opponents both count equally.

THIS IS THE SET-UP FOR A 2-PERSON GAME.
Click here to see 3-player set up or 4-player set up


ORDER OF PLAY:

1: Place or Mutate a Piece
2: Cull: Evaluate (Knock over) pieces which are dying
3: Bury: Return to owners any lonely or over-populated pieces
4: Test for win conditions
5: Play passes to next player

FUTHER DEFINITION OF TERMS:

Red creates a successful organism with 15 points in 9 pieces   Blue creates a successful organism with 15 points in 6 pieces
A 9-piece Win
Red wins by creating an ORGANISM worth 15 points, using 9 pieces. (4 smalls [virii] 4 mediums [bacteria] and one large [amoeba]). Winning pieces are highlighted in green.
A 6-piece Win
Blue wins by creating an ORGANISM worth 15 points, using 6 pieces.(1 smalls [virus] 1 medium [bacterium] and 4 large [amoebas]). Note that Red has more points on the board, but has not won because they are not grouped. Winning pieces are highlighted in green.

These are just two of the successful combinations - a number of wins are possible. Winning with MORE than 15 points is also possible.

Possible Moves:

  • Place (or Spawn): place any size piece available in your stash, in any square not already occupied. Be warned that while it is legal to place it in any open space, it may not survive in a given location. However, it will survive long enough to have an effect. In other words, you are allowed to play "sacrifices."
  • Mutate (Promote or Demote): replace a piece of your color with one from your stash 1 size bigger or smaller, if possible. However, if you do not have the size you want available, the mutation is not possible. You may NOT mutate a piece more than one size at a time.

    Cull Phase: Knock over any unhappy pieces. Leave in place as they are dying, not dead. They count as present while evaluating their neighbors on this round. Do not remove dying pieces until all pieces on the board have been evaluated. AFTER a piece dies, and is removed in the "Bury Phase," neighboring pieces may be left with too few neighbors but they will not die immediately - they will die at the end of the next person's turn, unless that person plays a piece that saves them.

    Bury Phase: Return "dying" pieces to owners' stashes. No Prisoners: the pieces are immediately available for reincarnation on that player's next turn.

    Win Conditions: After the Bury phase, check to see if anyone has won. If not, continue play.

    Depopulated: If you are ever to the point where ALL your pieces have died from the board, you are not out of the game: on your next turn you may still place a new piece, playing as usual.

    NOTES FOR 4-Player Game:

    Play-testing has revealed that the game is much more fun for 4 if you play in teams. It is possible for a 4-player game without teams to end in a win, but it is a long, long war of attrition and minute gains. Therefore, a Team game definition has been added.
    TEAM PLAY: Win conditions are the same. However, on a team player's move, he has the option of MUTATING a teammate's piece instead of playing one of his own. He may not PLACE a NEW one of the teammate's color, but may grow it. The set up position for team play is either four drones in the center four squares, one of each color, OR the four-pawn set up shown in the illustration. The adjacent pawns should be opponents.

    If you are curious about the other version of this game, you can see the old rules here: OLD RULES