Piecepack concept and history

Piecepack components from Mesomorph Games

The piecepack is a set of game pieces used to design and play a wide variety of games. It was invented by James Kyle and released into international public domain by him in August 2000. The game pieces consist of 24 tiles and 24 coins in four suits (Red Suns, Black Moons, Green Crowns, Blue Fleur de Lis) in 6 denominations (null, ace, 2, 3, 4, 5), 4 dice bearing the suits and denominations and 4 pawns representing the four colors. Note: piecepack is a single, non-capitalized word.

Well over 150 games have been invented or adapted for the piecepack, including versions of mancala, baseball, and soccer. Some games have been developed that use the piecepack in conjunction with other items such as playing cards, dominoes and Icehouse pieces.

Commercially produced piecepacks are available, but resources and instructions for making a set are freely distributed. Variations and additional components include pawn saucers and thematic suit expansions such as the four seasons and the four suits typical to card games.

Kyle's original concept also included the idea of portability; the most common piecepack designs fit into a standard VHS videocassette box. It was Kyle's ambition that piecepack might be analogous to a deck of playing cards in its flexibility, appeal to game designers and open source approach to distribution and manufacturing.