"C. Thi Nguyen’s Games: Agency as Art is a beautiful exploration of games as art, and the lessons we can learn from immersing ourselves in the agency within them. Nguyen proposes that our agency in games is akin to the relationship between the canvas and the artist: a medium for creativity, playfulness and aesthetic value" (Katja Behrens, in her review of the book).

In this highlighted first chapter of the book, Nguyen teaches us about the worlds that games generate and the shared values and agency we're offered within them.

Sprouts is a game for two players, and all you need is paper and pencil. The instructions are here at NRICH math along with some really great extension activities.

Sprouts was invented in 1967 by two mathematicians who loved to play with math. Stretchy Minds love to play with math, too!

Weird name, right? It's named after a Groucho Marx character called Hugo Z. Hackenbush.

Hackenbush was invented by John Conway, who is one of the inventors of Sprouts. In this game, players take turns removing lines from a picture. Watch out, though. Detached parts of the picture fall to the ground! The instructions are here at Paper and Pencil Games.

This web-based version is pretty great, too.