ZenBlocks

< = Zen Blocks =
< July 2005 interview by Ron Hale-Evans with game designer Jim Deacove of Family Pastimes (http://www.familypastimes.com), in which we talk about
< * cooperative games and game systems
< * Zen
< * //wabi-sabi//
< * the difference between games and puzzles
< * games as social experiences
< * games that come to us in dreams
< * games that are "open systems that given the random starting factors produce several integrated possible
< solutions, whatever the hell that means"...
< ----
< I wrote a series of articles for //[[http://www.thegamesjournal.com|The Games Journal]]//
< about game systems, or sets of
< components that can be used to play multiple games, such as a
< standard deck of cards. The [[http://www.thegamesjournal.com/articles/GameSystems4.shtml|fourth article in the series]] briefly
< mentioned a cooperative rock-paper-scissors game designed by Jim Deacove of [[http://www.familypastimes.com|Family Pastimes]], the subject of this interview.
< The fifth article was about polyform game systems, including dominoes and polyominoes. In July 2005, I had a few questions for Jim about his game [[http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/7919/zen-blocks|Zen Blocks]].
< This turned into a long interview, but
< unfortunately, //The Games Journal// folded before I could finish my article, so I set the material aside for a long while.
< Nearly five years later, in May 2010, I was lying awake one night, when it occurred to me that I had an interesting interview about game systems that no one had ever seen.
< Jim has designed many games, game systems, and books, most of them cooperative, and I have a number of them, including Galaxy, the //Co-op Games Manual//, and //Co-op Parlor Games//. However, my enduring favorite is probably the contemplative Zen Blocks.
< Here is my July 2005 interview with Jim.
< ----
< **RON HALE-EVANS**: Jim, I've really come to enjoy and appreciate Zen Blocks. I had been
< eyeing them online for some time, and when I saw an old set in a used
< bookstore, I snapped them up. I find that I can finish Level 2
< (matching tops and bottoms) when playing with a 10-year-old
< girl I know, but that two grownups -- my wife and I -- can't finish Level 2 alone or
< together. Hmm...
< I read a [[http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/33287/user-review|review of Zen Blocks on BoardGameGeek]] today that mentioned
< there are two different editions. One is made entirely of cubes; the
< other has only one cube, with the rest of the blocks shaped like two
< cubes glued together, like 3D dominoes. That's the one I have. Why did you make two different editions?
< **JIM DEACOVE**: The all-cube edition came later. I wanted to add complexity to the game.
< While the original contained the 3D domino form, I felt that it was limited
< to being too much like a puzzle, even having more than one way to form
< the overall cube. With 28 cubes dealt out to the players,
< there is a more gamelike feel to it. Also, there are far more ways for the
< final overall cube to be formed.
< **Q**: Interesting. How do you distinguish between games -- especially
< cooperative games -- and puzzles? I have my own answer to this
< question, but I am interested to hear your answer, because you have
< made a career out of designing cooperative games.
< **JIM DEACOVE**: I ask myself the same question about all the games I play, competitive or cooperative.
< Card solitaires? Games or puzzles? Board games such as [[http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1294/clue|Clue]], [[http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1275/221b-baker-street-and-expansions|221B Baker Street]], and so on?
< Games or puzzles?
< I also design what I call puzzles and they feel very different than my games.
< My simple rule of thumb is that puzzles have one solution and when you figure
< that out, the puzzle is solved.
< A game may have only one objective, but there are many paths to get there.
< A game may also have several objectives with many paths to get there.
< Finally, there is the replay value to consider. Games can be played many times
< and all its possibilities not exhausted, while a puzzle once solved is a done deal.
< At least for the person who solved it.
< **Q**: Do you prefer one edition to the other? Which is the current edition?
< **JIM DEACOVE**: The current edition has the 28 cubes. I prefer it, although because of the
< easy way the first edition came to me in a dream I still retain much affection
< for it.
< **Q**: Within each edition, are all copies of Zen Blocks manufactured with
< the same set of blocks?
< **JIM DEACOVE**: Yes, there is a very specific set of printing formulas for each edition. The current
< edition drove the silkscreening companies crazy that we jobbed out the work to (after the game
< became popular and we couldn't handle the volume). Of course, 28 blocks, 6 sides each, results
< in a lot more work. They really messed up the job, so we do it ourselves again, to make sure
< it gets done precisely the way I want it.
< **Q**: Recent copies of the game have much nicer boxes. Have the rules
< also been improved since 1972? Are there any new games, especially
< ones with different core mechanics?
< **JIM DEACOVE**: The basic idea of forming a cube remains the same. Although, when I have
< been demonstrating the game at schools, I have created a new game that
< abandons the cube concept and is linear, more like the dominoes which inspired
< the original 13 block game. I haven't fully tested the linear version, so I haven't
< added it to the rules yet. //[May 2010: Jim tells me that all new copies of Zen Blocks now include the "linear domino game", called Domino Zen. Perhaps I'll ask him to upload a PDF of the new rulebook to BoardGameGeek, so that people who own older all-cubes sets will be able to play the new game.]//
< **Q**: If I understand you correctly, there are only two published rulesets
< for Zen Blocks: the 1972 rules for the first edition, and the 1996
< rules for the second edition. Is that right?
< **JIM DEACOVE**: Yes. Just two generations of the game... so far.
< **Q**: The new game sounds like fun.
< I think a totally new game would make Zen Blocks a full game system,
< so I am very interested in the linear domino game.
< Have people sent you any new games that can be played with Zen
< Blocks that you haven't published for some reason?
< **JIM DEACOVE**: No, people have just responded by saying that the highest level of play
< with the 28-cube version is not possible and that we must have printed
< the blocks incorrectly. This is the most common response, even though
< there are more possible solutions with 28 cubes.
< **Q**: How do the rules differ between the two editions?
< **JIM DEACOVE**: Both rules have the same basic matching requirements and the same object
< of forming a large cube. We no longer print the version you
< have - a collector's item! We also no longer use furniture oil and instead
< use water based lacquers to finish the blocks. The oil, like Rembrandt paintings,
< darkens over the years and can make the symbols disappear.
< **Q**: True, but the patina adds to the atmosphere of the game. I will
< certainly hold onto my first edition. Its patina gives it a little //[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wabi-sabi|wabi-sabi]]//.
< Would you mind describing your initial inspiration from a dream in
< more detail? This kind of thing has happened to me on a few
< occasions, and it always fascinates me to hear stories about it from
< other people.
< **JIM DEACOVE**: I always keep a notebook with me, when sleeping, when relaxing in a bathtub
< or a sauna, when walking around, when having tea at my favorite tea room.
< Those moments are gifts and I want to be ready to receive them.
< If I remember correctly, various circumstances contributed to this particular dream.
< First, I was working in our woodshop helping to make the large co-operative table games
< we used to make (and now only sell blueprints to make your own). I loved handling wood,
< sanding the pieces, fitting them together, and I recall holding a few of the little offcuts
< at a certain angle so that the sunlight was reflecting on one plane of the piece.
< I was quite mesmerized and began playing with the pile of offcuts, quite mindlessly.
< Then back to the work at hand.
< Secondly, I was very absorbed with reading various works by Alan Watts at the time
< and quite fascinated with the Japanese kanji, their forms and meanings.
< The whole yin/yang concept obviously made an impression on me, because a few nights later, I kept waking up with these pictures of cubes with Japanese symbols
< in my mind. I started copying them down on my bedside notebook. I would wake up, write down
< stuff, go back to sleep, wake up again and add more diagrams until the process seemed to end.
< Next day, I took the diagrams to the woodshop and with a felt tip marker made a set of blocks.
< This set was closer to the 28 cube version than the original version. I decided to reduce the
< number of blocks and make the double blocks with two symbols already together on the sides. The
< version you have.This was simpler for us to make (and if we can't make it, we don't do it.
< As a result many a very elaborate game idea thus remains in my idea box!).
< I wanted to verify what all the symbols meant, since only some of them were in Watts's books.
< So, I visited the Japanese embassy in our nearby capital,
< Ottawa, with my diagrams and asked a very professorial gentlemen there for some clarification of meanings.
< He gave me very elaborate, complicated answers. I left confused and disappointed.
< I saw no future in the game. I try to appeal to mainstream game players and not to a rarefied audience.
< While driving out of the city, I saw a Japanese grocery store, and guided by a hunch, I stopped, went in,
< and spoke to a very gentle older lady, showing her my diagrams. She gave me short, one or two word
< translations for each symbol, which I copied down. I also asked her to write in her own hand, how she
< would make the symbols. She did those for me, very neatly and precisely. I have used her renderings
< ever since for our silkscreens.
< **Q**: The origin of Zen Blocks is quite a story. Thank you for sharing that with me.
< By the way, I take a notebook with me everywhere as well. It's a good practice
< for creative people.
< Why did you choose these six symbols in particular (Heaven/Earth,
< Sun/Rain, and Lion/Lamb)?
< **JIM DEACOVE**: The dream provided them, the lady defined them, and they seemed to fit the
< overall concept. For example, she said Sun meant Good Fortune, Rain meant
< Bad Luck. Lamb meant gentle. Lion meant the opposite. The metaphoric potential
< of the symbols was made clear by this kind lady and I still love her for her
< contribution.
< **Q**: What do you think of other designers' cooperative games, such as
< Reiner Knizia's [[http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/823/lord-of-the-rings|Lord of the Rings]] game, or the recent game [[http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/15062/shadows-over-camelot|Shadows
< Over Camelot]]?
< **JIM DEACOVE**: I have played Lord of the Rings, but not Shadows
< Over Camelot.
< I just acquired a copy of the latter and look forward to trying it out at our next
< game club session.
< I think that Lord of the Rings is a very strong game, and I do call it a game, even though
< there was some debate in //Counter// magazine and elsewhere that it is not
< a true game. I enjoyed the chap who scolded the naysayers who claim in
< one instance that they play games not for blood but for the social experience
< but in the second instance are critical of Lord of the Rings because it is nothing but a
< social experience.
< It is also interesting how gamers are so intent on finding the way to break
< the game, thereby proving that the game has no replay value.
< The one criticism I have is that at the end of the rules, either Knizia or else
< his publisher has added a competitive way to play the game. The suggestion
< seems to be that the co-operative way to play may not be challenging enough
< so here's a better way to play it.
< I understand from the box description of Shadows, there is a competitive
< twist provided to make the game more thrilling as well.
< It seems that publishers are very wary of offering a purely cooperative game.
< Possibly, they want to attract competitive gamers to the genre and not limit their market.
< **Q**: Yes, I think that's true. I also think Shadows may be influenced by the
< Lord of the Rings [[http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgameexpansion/3819/lord-of-the-rings-sauron|Sauron Expansion]]. I gather from the fact that you
< didn't mention it that you may not be familiar with this item. Knizia
< designed an expansion to the basic game that adds another player, who
< takes on the role of Sauron. Any time the die would be rolled in the
< original game, Sauron steps in to make the situation as bad as he can
< for the hobbits. So there's a strongly competitive element in Lord of the Rings as
< many groups play it: the hobbits versus Sauron. In Shadows Over
< Camelot, one of the characters is optionally a traitor and works
< secretly against the other players, while pretending to work with
< them. Thus, there's a one-against-many mechanic again.
< **JIM DEACOVE**: Yes, I have heard about the expansion, but have not played it.
< **Q**: I got to play the new edition of [[http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/15987/arkham-horror|Arkham Horror]] over the weekend. Are
< you familiar with it? It's based on the horror fiction of H.P.
< Lovecraft. It is purely cooperative and reminded me of the [[http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/805/buffy-the-vampire-slayer-the-game-us|Buffy the
< Vampire Slayer]] game, which is not surprising, as that game was
< probably influenced by the [[http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/34/arkham-horror|old edition]] of Arkham Horror.
< How do you feel about "dark" themes in cooperative games?
< **JIM DEACOVE**: The theme of a game is very important for me. I once played a Dracula game
< and found that the theme interfered with my appreciation of the game as well
< as any mechanisms that I generally enjoy studying. This giving priority to theme
< content also tends to cloud my appreciation of most war games. At some point
< in such games I ask myself, What is all this effort and strategizing about? The neat
< mechanisms are not enough to sustain my interest.
< **Q**: Do you personally play competitive games in your game group, or are
< you philosophically against them?
< **JIM DEACOVE**: Yes, our group does play quite a
< variety of games and I must say that European games were a major factor in
< not only reviving, but also expanding the activities of our game group.
< I am not so much philosophically against competitive games as incompetent
< at them. I tend to see how another player could make a very good move and if I don't
< watch my tongue, I tell them. Everyone gets irritated at me and house rules are now,
< ironically, that helping is a form of cheating.
< I play competitive games for the social interaction (yes, I am one of those kind of gamers)
< and mostly to learn what other designers are doing.
< Also, since we manufacture my games, I like examining other companies' games to see
< how they glue their boards, diecut their pieces, make their boxes and try to learn something
< from the true professionals.
< I still consider myself an amateur and our company a little fish in very big ocean.
< After all these years, there is still a magic and thrill about opening up a new game, fondling
< the pieces and then seeing how the whole works.
< **Q**: If you have any other cooperative games
< that can be classed as game systems, I'd like to learn about
< those too; it might be interesting to do an article on cooperative
< game systems sometime.
< **JIM DEACOVE**: Most likely you will find only my Strategy games would fit - possibly [[http://www.familypastimes.com/Strategy/warpnwoof.html|Warp 'n Woof]],
< [[http://www.familypastimes.com/Strategy/yinyang.html|Yin Yang]], maybe even the 40 game collection with the [[http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/7895/galaxy|Galaxy]] cards. The only
< other thing to consider would be my multi-age level games such as [[http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/7899/oasis|Oasis]], more
< recently [[http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/18735/ogres-elves|Ogres & Elves]] in which I have the same equipment used by different age
< groups to play a slightly different game. But I have a feeling that this is not quite
< what you mean by "game systems".
< (LATER)
< **Q**: You're right -- I checked out all of the games you mentioned and only [[http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/7895/galaxy|Galaxy]] seems to
< be a true game system, as I define it. In order for something
< to be a game system, it must have rulesets for more than one game. I
< consider two rulesets to be separate games only if they have fewer
< rules in common than not; otherwise, they are variants of each other.
< I bought the second edition of Zen Blocks at a local teacher's supply
< store today, and the first thing I did was analyze the cubes. It's a
< pretty interesting set of permutations -- 16 "plain" cubes with all
< six symbols on opposing sides, the 8 cubes with the double symbols
< (including two extra cubes for Heaven and Earth doubles), the cube
< with 6 wilds, and then the three cubes with two wilds and various
< combinations of other symbols, including a Heaven double and an Earth
< double again.
< **JIM DEACOVE**: A Math teacher friend visiting our farm was helping us in the shop
< when we were doing a run of the Zen Blocks game and he set about analyzing it from his
< math perspective. He told me that it is a mathematical system that works well at various
< levels and he went about computerizing it . I take his word for it. I only dream these things
< up. I leave the analysts and theorists to do their thing.
< **Q**: I'd love to see your friend's analysis of Zen Blocks.
<
< **JIM DEACOVE**: My mathematician friend, Jerry, has moved to Winnipeg, Manitoba and heads up a computer science
< department now. He took his notes with him. He recently returned from travels abroad,
< and said in email
< that he went through all his old
< papers and can't find the analysis of Zen Blocks.
< He does remember that it was an "open system that given
< the random starting factors would produce several integrated possible
< solutions." Whatever the hell that means.
< **Q**: How did you come to design this particular set of permutations? Did
< it make building the big cube easier or harder in some way?
< **JIM DEACOVE**: The second edition was actually the first edition because the dream diagrams
< contained 21 cubes with the symbols in place. I just didn't understand what
< it all meant and simplified to the 13-block size.
< It was only many years later when I wanted to add some complexity to the
< game that I went back to my old notebooks and realized that I had enough
< material to add to what was already there.
< If only I had slept in a little longer to receive the other 7 cubes, the second
< edition would have fallen into place more easily.
< **Q**: Wow. Thanks for doing this interview, Jim. I hope I haven't been too much of a pest!
< **JIM DEACOVE**: Thanks for the opportunity to dialogue.
< ----
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