[pbmserv-dev] Lazo?

["David J Bush" <twixt@cstone.net>]

I invented a 3-d connection game, which I named "Loop."
It has been suggested that this name is a bit geeky,
so I may rename it Lazo, which is Spanish for Loop
(I think.) I was surprised when I discovered Cameron's
game Akron, another 3-d connection game. but he and I
took very different approaches. Loop is featured in the
"spotlight" at the Zillions of Games website:
http://www.zillionsofgames.com/

The game uses a hexagonal grid instead of a square one.
Pieces are stacked like cannonballs. Cameron avoided this
because at each new level, cannonballs could be stacked
on two different grids, which conflict with each other.
I devised a flat tile piece shape which solves this problem;
pieces can be stacked in only one way on each new level.
You can see a perspective image of the game, which I
generated with POV-ray:
http://www.geocities.com/twixtplayer/loopposition.jpg

Lazo is a similar to Havannah, insofar as one way to win
in Havannah is to form a loop around at least one empty
space or vacant tile. I took that one object and extended
it to three dimensions. But none of the other objects in
Havannah apply to Lazo, so it's really a very different
game.

I am working on a Word document rules manual for a
physical prototype of the game. It is currently at almost
4 megabytes and growing, even compressed. But I could send
the first two pages, which covers all the rules, to anyone
interested.

Would anyone be interested in programming this for PBMserv?
It needs play testing, especially on a large grid. The
grid of base holes for my prototype is in the shape of
a trapezoid:

      v v v v v v v v
     v v v v v v v v v
    v v v v v v v v v v
   v v v v v v v v v v v
  v v v v v v v v v v v v
 v v v v v v v v v v v v v
v v v v v v v v v v v v v v

This is a larger grid than I used for Zillions; I may add this
larger variant to the package.

I would be glad to try to answer any question. I am working on
an intro and tutorial for my website.

Thanks very much!!

David