(no subject)

[prog]

This week's Wunderland Weekly News update is interesting. Looney Labs is letting the Zendo boxed set go out of print... frowny. I was so sure this would be a money-maker for them, since they were capitalizing on what is surely the Icehouse system's killer app. But the skyrocketing price of oil has made production of those pretty plastic pyramids eat up all their profit margin! What a bad break. Andy then writes about their investigation into exporting the work, and what they discover and ultimately decide.

It's frustrating... I have always loved the Icehouse concept, and considered myself lucky to discover the Looneys' efforts (and, through them, the whole world of "alt.gaming") just as they themselves were discovering a way to achieve their dream of mass-produced, retail-ready Icehouse sets. I hope they can find a way to keep that dream from dying, and without feeling like they compromised their ideals in the process. The world needs more Icehouse.

---

Andy goes on to say that they're wagering on Volcano being the real killer app, which runs contrary to my own observations... or does it? I think it really runs contrary to own preferences, and maybe my own hopes. Zendo's attraction is immediate and obvious to puzzle-loving nerdos (like me), but Volcano may be far more accessible while staying piece-centric and retaining some of that puzzliness -- though in a more Sokobanesque sort of way. But, there are surely more players of Sokoban (and Tetris and Minesweeper and their ten million descendants) than of the logic puzzles that Zendo comes from. Hm.

Comments

[radiotelescope.livejournal.com]

I was just reading that too... I worry about the "*this* will be the killer app for pyramids!" trap. It feels like the Looneys have been saying that about every single pyramid product since the original resin solids. Volcano is a popular game, but if Zendo didn't do it, Volcano won't.

I figure "$20 for a four-stash box set" is the killer app. That may be overstating it, maybe $25 is sufficiently low. $30? Um, maybe. It's moot, since it sounds like they can't get the costs down that far anytime soon.

That being the case, I guess the obvious strategy is "Produce another hit card game."

Volcanic Zendo Towers

[zyxwvut.livejournal.com]

How can the pieces be too expensive for a Zendo set, but cost-effective for Volcano?

Z

P.S.: ::wonders how much of it is due to Andy's not liking Zendo that much::

Re: Volcanic Zendo Towers

[prog.livejournal.com]

It is a little strange, especially since Volcano's minimum piece set is bigger than Zendo's by an entire stash-and-a-third.

Re: Volcanic Zendo Towers

[radiotelescope.livejournal.com]

Well, he didn't say Volcano would be more cost-effective than Zendo, he said he thought it would sell better. Given that assumption, he could be thinking of charging more. Or taking a minuscule profit margin until the sales volume justifies new molds.