Donald Green, despite holding the impressive title of Professor of Political Science and Director of the Institution for Social and Policy Studies at Yale University, may not be best-known not for his years of teaching issues like the effects of money on House elections.

Something much more elegant (and for most of us more enjoyable) is the source of Mr. Green's growing worldwide reputation -- the award-winning abstract game Octi.

Octi is played on a 9x9 grid of squares, six of which (three per player) serve as bases. The winner is the first player to occupy all three enemy bases at the same time.

Simple so far -- but this is where things get clever. Each player controls seven octagon-shaped pieces called "pods" and 25 peas called "prongs." The game starts with an empty pod on each of the bases. On a given turn, players may: (1) add a pron to a pod (the prongs are placed in holes on the sides of the pods), giving it the ability to move in a particular direction; (2) move a pod; or (3) add a new pod to the board.

"Octi is a game akin to directional checkers in which players must decide, on each turn, whether to move a piece, add a new piece to the board, or improve a piece currently on the board," Green said in a recent email interview. "In effect, they must choose among quantity, quality, and tempo. Because the pieces jump (over both friendly and opposing pieces) in any of 8 possible directions, the action is fast and furious."

Octi has been compared favorably to ancient games like Chess and Go. Unlike those cyames, however, it has proven -- so far, at least -- to be "computer-resistant." That is, no -enuinely effective artificial intelligence engine has yet been developed for Octi.

Following is the text of a recent email exchange with Don Green, designer of Octi, Games Magazine's 2000 Best Abstract Strategy Game.

When did you first develop an interest in boardgames?

I've been a game enthusiast all my life. My brothers and I would clear out our bedrooms and sleep in bunks so that we could have five or ten games set up at once on the floor. I was a regular in the nerdy play-chess-at-lunch crowd at school, and in general my friends were even more gung-ho about games than my brothers. I played a wide array of games including abstracts, wargames, RPGs, etc. When I grew up (sort of) and bought a house, I made sure it had a big basement for gaming. The problem was, I discovered, that kids and careers tend to eat into the stock of time. My tastes changed somewhat, and I became fond of abstract games that could be played in an hour or two, such as Quoridor, Cathedral, and Abalone.

What were some of your first favorite games?

My favorites as a kid were Stocks and Bonds, Twixt, Ploy, Strate-go, Diplomacy, Risk, and Careers. As a teenager, I got into mega-war games such as War in Europe. Octi players may recognize shades of WIE insofar as Octi involves mobilization, grand strategy, and intriguing trade-offs albeit in very abstract form. I've always been drawn into the idea of playing a game that is so wide open in its strategic options as to be resistant to computer play. Octi is also a distant cousin of Ploy and Twixt.

Is Octi your first completed game design?

Octi was the first, and before that, I had never considered designing a game. Octi came to me one day as I was playing with Knex and Tinker Toys with my children. That was Memorial Day of 1998. It took about 2 days to formulate the whole thing. Then, it took off fast, as my colleagues and students got caught up in the novelty of playtesting. To my surprise, the core idea -- building your pieces as you play--held up under playtesting by many curmudgeony people. Small refinements occurred after that (e.g., the 4 player game, the superprong variant), but for the most part it was born fully-formed. Odd how that happens sometimes with ideas.

Once you began to seriously develop Octi, how long was it before you decided to look for a publisher?

As a longtime game junkie, I knew that I had something special and unique in Octi, but I had absolutely no idea about prototypes, marketing, the game biz. Nothing! So I did some silly things like send opaque sketches to my favorite companies, which of course got me nowhere. Then, I got more serious and created some nice prototypes, contacted a local game company (Great American Trading), and they decided to go with it in November of 1998. Octi made its debut in retail stores in June of 1999. It's astonishing to think of all that has happened in just the past two years.

Why did you go with a publisher rather than produce the game yourself?

I know nothing about business or manufacturing, a fact that was not lost on my wife who was dead set against my starting a company. I'm glad that I've left those problems to others. I'm in this for fun, not money.

What response did you get from publishers whenyou submitted the game?

GATCO [The Great American Trading Co.] was enthusiastic right from the start; the headaches initially had to do with production issues (e.g., how to make pieces in wood, what sort of material to use for the board), but those were eventually sorted out. I like working with them and, more generally, working with a family-owned business such as theirs. They actually *enjoy* games. Many others in the game business may as well be selling shoes or cars.

Have you been pleased with the response to Octi?

I've been delighted. As the game grows and takes on a life of its own, I feel as though I am living in a daydream. It's very satisfying to know that people around the world are having fun with it and regard it as one of the few games that can be compared to Chess or Go. I especially enjoy my interactions with AI [artificial intelligence] programmers from around the world, who are taking up the challenge of programming Octi. But my favorite part is just playing; I love to get into on-line games with people in Sweden, Australia ... all over.

When did you learn about the award from Games magazine (2000 Best Abstract Strategy Game)? What was your reaction?

Last September, while at an academic conference. In some ways, I'm more proud of that award than I am anything else I've done. It's so far-fetched. It's like walking into a major league baseball game, picking up a bat, and getting a hit. What are the odds?

What, if anything, surprised you most in the process of designing Octi?

The most remarkable thing was the extent to which the hobby of game inventing changes one as a person. Before Octi, I never did anything with my hands, and I never aspired to make anything tangible. Now, I am an avid woodworker, and I have come to have a new appreciation for craftsmanship and design. I walk through each day with a totally different view of my surroundings.

Why did you decide to develop Octi for Kids?

GATCO perceived, correctly, that the market for a kids' game is far greater than the specialty games market. It's proven to be a great idea, because the sales of Octi for Kids really contribute to the growth of Octi. I actually like Octi for Kids quite a lot, and there are now some really neat AI versions of it (see zillions-of-games.com).

Are you working on any new game ideas?

One game, Mouse Island, will come to market next month [June 2000]. It's a game where mice scurry across a bed of dominoes in order to reach the cheese on the other side. On each turn, players move their mouse and a domino, so that the geometry of the island is always changing. I've created prototypes of six other games, all abstract strategy, which are in various stages of review and production, but I've droned on long enough. Suffice it to say that it's a wonderful hobby.

These comments from Donald Green, originally posted to the Board Game Design discussion group, explain in some detail the background of Octi and how it came to be:

Octi is rooted in my academic work on game theory in politics, in that it illustrates how a game with simple rules can nevertheless have an "equilibrium" that is so deep that it is very difficult to anticipate how players (or computers) will attack the problem or formulate strategies. In this respect, Octi is similar to Go.

The other objective was to formulate a game that would give humans an edge over computers. At the risk of oversimplifying, this tends to occur when a game emphasizes long-range strategic planning over short-ranae tactics. While there is nothing new under the sun, Octi expands the role of "promotion" in chess or checkers: pieces are continually being promoted or added to the board. Moreover, the pieces are synergistic -- two weak pieces working in tandem are typically stronger than one powerful piece working alone. Thus, players must create their own pieces with an eye toward their capacity to work together down the road.

The serious details of how Octi evolved are many, but the short story is this. At first, my tendency was to revel in the recalcitrant complexity of the game. The board was 11 x 11 with 9 pieces per side. GATCO (correctly) perceived that this was more game than the typical person would want to play, and so the current incarnation is 9x9 with 7 pieces per side.

Moreover, they urged me to formulate a "fast game" which I did. Next, they wanted a "family" version that could be played with 4 players. That was easily done, and it turns out to be the most intriguing version of all.

Meanwhile, my colleagues weighed in with their own tastes, which were for more complexity, and so I introduced a toroidal board option and a "superprong" option, both of which appeal to people who really love to revel in complexity.

All of these options raise some controversy: is it better to have one canonical game or a game with many variants? Those eager to have official tournaments and the like tend to prefer the former.

I tend to take the long view of this question. Games like Chess or Go evolved over many centuries, and should Octi survive, it is likely to do the same. Time will take the "official" game in unpredictable directions, and I see my role as suggesting a few possibilities for what is really a "game system" as much as a specific game.

Erik Arneson (boardgames.guide@about.com) is a member ofthe SGS and runs the About Board Games site at http://boardgames.about.com/ where he regularly features interviews with game designers.