Modular Hexagonal Game Pieces Without Interlocking Complexity
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional three-dimensional tabletop games face limitations in scalability, component organization, and interlocking mechanisms that increase manufacturing costs and breakage likelihood, while restricting board configurations and gameplay flexibility.
Innovation Solution
A game system featuring non-interlocking hexagonal game pieces with contoured edges that allow for easy assembly, disassembly, and rearrangement, utilizing a meshing mechanism that prevents interlocking, and includes border pieces for enclosure and component management.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Stability of the object's composition
If interlocking mechanisms are used between game pieces, then structural stability is improved, but device complexity and manufacturing cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent removes the interlocking mechanism entirely from the game piece design. Instead of pieces locking together through complex mechanisms, the game uses a simplified approach where pieces are placed adjacent to each other on a grid, and stability is maintained through the border piece enclosure and gravity for three-dimensional structures. This extraction of the interlocking function reduces complexity while maintaining sufficient structural integrity for gameplay.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent divides the game system into distinct functional components: game pieces for building structures, border pieces for enclosure, and separate organizational components for gameplay elements. This segmentation allows each component to be simple in design while the system as a whole achieves the necessary stability and functionality through their coordinated use rather than complex interlocking mechanisms.
2Stability of the object's composition
If interlocking mechanisms are used between game pieces, then structural stability is improved, but likelihood of breakage increases
Solution Approach 1:
By removing the interlocking mechanism, the patent eliminates the primary source of breakage risk. The simplified adjacent placement system with border piece enclosure does not require complex connection points that could fail, thereby reducing the likelihood of breakage while maintaining structural stability through alternative means.
3Stability of the object's composition
If conventional interlocking tiles are used, then board construction stability is improved, but adaptability and rearrangement flexibility during gameplay are reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a dynamic system where board constructions can be easily rearranged during gameplay. The lack of interlocking mechanisms allows players to freely move and reposition game pieces while the border pieces provide a stable enclosure that maintains the overall structure. This dynamic flexibility is enabled by the simplified connection system that doesn't restrict piece movement.
4Ease of operation
If conventional interlocking mechanisms are used, then assembly and disassembly are simplified, but device complexity and manufacturing cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent removes the interlocking mechanism, thereby eliminating the complexity associated with assembly and disassembly operations. The simplified system requires only placing pieces adjacent to each other on the grid, which is inherently easier and faster than manipulating complex interlocking mechanisms, while also reducing manufacturing complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
Provided is a game system that includes game pieces, each having a perimeter that includes multiple edges, such that each edge of any individual one of the game pieces meshes with each edge of any other individual one of the game pieces, with all of the edges, across all of the game pieces, being identical to each other. Also, each of the edges is contoured such that when a first edge of a first piece is meshed with a second edge of a second piece, movement between the first piece and the second piece is limited, but the first piece and the second piece are not interlocked with each other so that they can be simply slid apart from each other.