[Icehouse] Explaining icehouse as simply as possible

[Kristin]

Thank you for your thoughts on other things that need tweaking on
this Treehouse page, I hope to find time to update that page soon.

As far as the ideas for an Icehouse specific card like the micro
catalog - awesome ideas, but nobody here at Looney Labs is going
to have time to produce such a thing any time soon.  That said,
if someone designs such a card, we can add a prominent link on
this main Treehouse page to download a file you guys can print
and cut up to make such cards to carry with their pyramids.

-Kristin

--On July 23, 2007  Carl Worth <cworth at cworth.org> wrote:

> On Mon, 23 Jul 2007 15:30:12 -0500, "James Hazelton" wrote:
> > I've been thinking about an Icehouse explanation card as well. By
> > trying to explain verbally what I'm playing, I have to get across the
> > name of the actual game ("Black ICE"), what they'd need to know to
> > search google ("Icehouse"), and what they'd need to know to buy or
> > order from a local game store ("Treehouse"). Nobody is quickwitted
> > enough to remember all of that when the expected answer is a single
> > word, like "Monopoly," or "Hearts."
>
> Yes, that's exactly the problem---very well said.
>
> And while a single Icehouse-introduction card would definitely help a
> lot; what might be even better would be a bunch of game-specific
> cards. The back could be common and teach shared names like
> "Icehouse", "Treehouse", and "looneylabs.com" while the front gave an
> introduction to the specific game being played.
>
> That does mean designing N cards instead of 1, but it also avoids the
> problem of having to decide which games make the cut and get mentioned
> on the card.
>
> Now if only I had any artistic sense, then I could get started on
> doing some mockups...
>
> -Carl
>
> PS. And as proof that people aren't quickwitted to remember all those
> names, someone just followed up with me today asking, "Where can I get
> this funny pyramids game you have?". So either no name stuck there,
> (or maybe he was someone that watched without asking any specific
> question).
>
> And fortunately, in this context, (email and chat, rather than a noisy
> restaurant/bar), it's easy to give a definitive answer:
>
> 	http://www.looneylabs.com/whybuy/treehouse.html
>
> Though things I note on that page now:
>
>   * There's not yet any mention of the Origins award
>
>   * The "next, add a copy of Martian Coasters" wording makes it sound
>     like that's a required expansion, (before just buying two more
>     treehouse sets). That seems to undermine the 3House pitch a bit I
>     think.
>
>   * The "This represents Big Changes!" section is clearly written for
>     sake of a retailer switching from monochrome stashes to
>     treehouse. I assume that that's no longer necessary? (The brochure
>     isn't available for sale anymore I noticed.) And this paragraph is
>     mostly just noise for anyone getting their first introduction to
>     the game.
>
>   * It seems it would be useful to list Treehouse itself as a product
>     at the top of the list titled "Other Icehouse Accessories you can
>     purchase," (perhaps changing the title slightly).