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Jenga
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A Jenga tower | |
| Designers | Leslie Scott |
|---|---|
| Publication | 1983 |
| Players | 1 or more |
| Setup time | < 2 minutes |
| Playing time | Usually 5–15 minutes |
| Chance | None |
| Age range | 3 and up |
| Skills | Manual dexterity, eye–hand coordination, precision, and strategy |
| Website | jenga.com |
Jenga is a game of physical skill created by British board game designer and author Leslie Scott and marketed by Hasbro. The name comes from the Swahili word "kujenga" which means 'to build or construct'.[1] Players take turns removing one block at a time from a tower constructed of 54 blocks. Each block removed is then placed on top of the tower, creating a progressively more unstable structure. The game ends when the tower falls over.
History
[edit]Jenga was created by Leslie Scott,[2] the co-founder of Oxford Games Ltd, based on a game that evolved within her family in the early 1970s using children's wooden building blocks,[3] which the family purchased from a sawmill in Takoradi, Ghana. The name Jenga is derived from kujenga, a Swahili word which means "to build".[3] A British national, Scott was born in Tanganyika, now Tanzania, where she was raised speaking English and Swahili, before moving to live in Ghana, West Africa. Scott launched the game she named and trademarked as "Jenga" at the London Toy Fair in January 1983[4] and sold it through her own company, Leslie Scott Associates. The blocks of the first sets of Jenga were manufactured for Scott by the Camphill Village Trust in Botton, Yorkshire. The V&A Museum of Childhood has exhibited one of the original sets of Jenga since 1982.[5]
In 1984, Robert Grebler, an entrepreneur from California who was the brother of a close friend of Scott, contacted her and expressed interest in importing and distributing Jenga in Canada. In April 1985, Grebler acquired from Scott the exclusive rights to Jenga for the United States and Canada, and then in October of that year, Scott assigned the worldwide rights in Jenga to Grebler,[6] which he in turn assigned to Pokonobe Associates. Convinced of Jenga's potential, Grebler had invited two cousins to form Pokonobe Associates with him in 1985 to increase distribution of Jenga.[7] Pokonobe then licensed Irwin Toy to sell Jenga in Canada and to be master licensee worldwide. Pokonobe Associates takes 80% of royalties while Scott receives 20% or less, despite Scott having authored and published the game while Grebler effectively acted only as an agent, the reverse of the customary split; Scott says she "came to regret signing away my rights to Jenga on those terms."[8]
Irwin Toy licensed Jenga to Schaper in the United States, and when that company was bought by Hasbro, Jenga was launched under the Milton Bradley banner in 1987.[9] Eventually, Hasbro became licensee in most countries around the world.
By 2019, according to Pokonobe Associates, owners of the Jenga brand, over 80 million Jenga games, equivalent to more than 4.3 billion Jenga blocks, had been sold worldwide.[10] On November 5, 2020, Jenga was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame.[11]
Rules
[edit]
Jenga is played with 54 wooden blocks. Each block is three times as long as it is wide, and one fifth as thick as its length – 1.5 cm × 2.5 cm × 7.5 cm (0.59 in × 0.98 in × 2.95 in). Blocks have small, random variations from these dimensions so as to create imperfections in the stacking process and make the game more challenging.[12] To begin the game, the blocks are stacked into a solid rectangular tower of 18 layers, with three blocks per layer. The blocks within each layer are oriented in the same direction, with their long sides touching, and are perpendicular to the ones in the layer immediately below. A plastic tray provided with the game can be used to assist in setup.
Starting with the one who built the tower, players take turns removing one block from any level below the highest completed one and placing it horizontally atop the tower, perpendicular to any blocks on which it is to rest. Each player may use only one hand to touch the tower or move a block at any given time, but may switch hands whenever desired. Once a level contains three blocks, it is complete and may not have any more blocks added to it. A block may be touched or nudged to determine whether it is loose enough to remove without disturbing the rest of the tower, but it must be returned to its original position if the player decides to move a different one. A turn ends when the next player in sequence touches the tower or when 10 seconds have elapsed since the placement of a block, whichever occurs first.
The game ends when any portion of the tower collapses, caused by either the removal of a block or its new placement. The last player to complete a turn before the collapse is the winner.
Tallest tower
[edit]The packaging copy of one edition of the Jenga game claims that Robert Grebler may have built the tallest Jenga tower ever at 402⁄3 levels. Grebler built the tower in 1985 while playing with an original Jenga set produced by Leslie Scott in the early 1980s.[13]
Official variants
[edit]This section needs additional citations for verification. (July 2021) |
- Throw 'n Go Jenga is a variant originally marketed by Hasbro. It consists of blocks that are in various colors plus a six-sided die. It is marketed by Art's Ideas.
- Jenga Truth or Dare was a variation of Jenga also marketed by Hasbro. This version looked like regular Jenga except there were three colors of blocks instead of just the natural color of Jenga.
- Jenga Xtreme used parallelogram-shaped blocks that could create some interesting leaning towers.
- Casino Jenga: Las Vegas Edition employed roulette-style game play, featuring a felt game board, betting chips, and additional rules.
In addition, there have been a number of collector edition Jenga games, featuring the colors and logos of the Boston Red Sox, Las Vegas Raiders, New York Yankees, and John Deere, among others. Hello Kitty Jenga, Transformers Jenga, Tarzan Jenga, Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas Jenga, Donkey Kong Jenga, Bob's Burgers Jenga, National Parks Jenga, Jenga Ocean, The Walking Dead Jenga, Super Mario Jenga, Fortnite Jenga, Godzilla Jenga, Rick and Morty Jenga, Onyx Jenga, and Harry Potter Jenga are some of the licensed variations of Jenga.
- Jenga XXL and Jenga Giant are licensed giant Jenga games manufactured and distributed by Art's Ideas. There are Jenga Giant variations which can reach 5 feet (150 cm) or higher in play, with very similar rules.[14] Jenga XXL starts at over 4 feet (1.2 m) high and can reach 8 feet (2.4 m) or higher in play. Rules are the same as in classic Jenga, except that players may use two hands to move the eighteen-inch-long blocks.[15]
- Jenga Pass Challenge includes a handheld platform that the game is played on. Players remove a block while holding the platform, then pass the platform to the next player. This variant includes only half the number of blocks (27), which means the tower starts at 9 levels high instead of 18.
See also
[edit]- Rock balancing
- 56 Leonard Street, nicknamed "the Jenga Building"
- Pick-up sticks, physical game of removing sticks from a pile
- The Final Straw, a game show with a similar format
- Dread, a role-playing game that uses a Jenga tower
References
[edit]- ^ Ricketts, Nicolas (2020-11-05). "Block by Block: Leslie Scott's Jenga Game (or, in Swahili, Zuia kwa kuzuia: Mchezo wa Jenga wa Leslie Scott)". The Strong National Museum of Play. Retrieved 2023-12-05.
- ^ Walsh 2004, p. 244.
- ^ a b "Strong National Museum of Play". Strongmuseum.org. 2009-01-20. Archived from the original on 2011-08-07. Retrieved 2010-05-19.
- ^ About Jenga: The Remarkable Business of Creating a Game that Became a Household Name. Leslie Scott (Greenleaf Book Group Press)[1]
- ^ "A personal view from Leslie Scott, the inventor of Jenga | Victoria and Albert Museum". Vam.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 2012-03-06. Retrieved 2012-02-06.
- ^ About Jenga, 108
- ^ Walsh 2004, p. 247.
- ^ About Jenga, 114
- ^ Walsh 2004, p. 248.
- ^ "Games offer benefits beyond the obvious one: fun". Orange County Register. 2019-05-20. Retrieved 2022-06-25.
- ^ "2020 National Toy Hall of Fame Inductees Announced". 2 November 2020.
- ^ Mike Danforth & Ian Chillag (August 14, 2015). "Sheep, Spiders, and Jenga". How To Do Everything (Podcast). NPR. Archived from the original on March 8, 2023. Retrieved March 8, 2023.
- ^ Marketing copy on inside lid of the 2008 Vintage Game Collection edition of Jenga marketed by Hasbro
- ^ "Get To Know The Jenga® GIANT™ Game Rules". Jenga GIANT official website. Retrieved 2019-09-26.
- ^ "Jenga". Jenga.us.com. Retrieved 2012-02-06.
Sources
[edit]- Walsh, Tim (2004). The Playmakers: Amazing Origins of Timeless Toys. Keys Publishing. ISBN 9780964697348.
External links
[edit]- Official website

- Jenga Giant
- The Jenga Chair (Archived 2016-12-20 at the Wayback Machine) in the Bröhan Museum
- The Jenga House
- Jenga at the V&A Museum of Childhood
Jenga
View on GrokipediaHistory
Origins and Invention
Jenga was invented by Leslie Scott, a British game designer born in Tanzania and raised in East Africa, during the mid-1970s while she was living in Ghana. Scott, who had moved there with her family at age 17 or 18, drew upon her experiences in the region to develop the game as a young adult. The creative process for Jenga began amid the wooden abundance of the area.[6][7] The game's concept originated from a simple stacking activity that Scott and her family enjoyed using irregular wooden blocks sourced as scraps from a local sawmill in Takoradi, Ghana. These blocks, collected by her younger brother, were roughly the size of standard Jenga pieces and served as the basis for informal play sessions that emphasized balance and removal without toppling the structure. This family pastime, played without formal rules and known as "Takoradi Bricks," evolved into Jenga as Scott sought to create a more structured and challenging version, transforming a casual diversion into a deliberate game design.[8][4][7] Scott named the game "Jenga," derived from the Swahili verb kujenga, meaning "to build," which aptly captured the core mechanic of constructing and deconstructing a tower—a nod to her fluency in the language from her East African upbringing. In the late 1970s, after returning to the UK, she began crafting handmade prototypes using wood from local sources, initially experimenting with varying block dimensions and quantities. Through iterative testing with friends and family in Oxford, she refined the design to 54 blocks arranged in 18 layers of three, ensuring the tower's inherent instability while maintaining playability. This prototyping phase solidified Jenga's form before its eventual commercialization in the 1980s.[4][6][7]Commercialization and Popularity
Leslie Scott launched Jenga commercially at the London Toy Fair in January 1983, marketing it through her own company, Leslie Scott Associates.[7][9] In April 1985, Scott sold the exclusive rights to Jenga for the U.S. and Canada to Robert Grebler, who then assigned worldwide distribution rights to Pokonobe Associates, a partnership he formed with cousins Paul Eveloff and David Grebler.[10] Pokonobe licensed the game to Irwin Toy for Canada in 1986 and to Schaper for the U.S., but after Hasbro acquired Schaper, it relaunched Jenga under the Milton Bradley imprint in 1987, establishing broader North American distribution.[10] Hasbro has since become the primary global marketer of the game, overseeing its production and sales under license from Pokonobe Associates.[10] As of 2019, over 80 million Jenga games had been sold worldwide, equivalent to more than 4.3 billion blocks, and the game was available in 117 countries.[6] This commercial success underscores Jenga's transformation from a niche wooden block game into an enduring global phenomenon. On November 5, 2020, Jenga was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame at The Strong National Museum of Play, recognizing its timeless appeal across generations.Gameplay
Rules
Jenga is played with a set of 54 wooden blocks, each precisely cut to dimensions of 1.5 cm thick, 2.5 cm wide, and 7.5 cm long.[4] To set up the game, the blocks are stacked into a tower consisting of 18 layers, with each layer made of three blocks placed side by side along their long edges and oriented at a right angle to the blocks in the layer below; this initial configuration forms a square-based tower approximately 10.5 inches (27 cm) tall.[11][12] The objective of the game is to be the last player to successfully remove and place a block without causing the tower to fall.[11] Players take turns in sequence, with each turn requiring the removal of exactly one block from any level of the tower except the incomplete top layer (specifically, no blocks may be removed from the highest level that is not fully complete with three blocks).[12] The removed block must then be placed on top of the tower to begin or complete a new layer, maintaining the alternating orientation pattern.[11] During a turn, only one hand may be used to remove and place the block, and players may lightly tap other blocks to assess their looseness before selecting one to remove, provided they do not dislodge or destabilize the structure.[12] If a block is partially removed but cannot be fully extracted without risking collapse, it must be carefully pushed back into place before attempting another; however, if any part of the tower falls as a result of a player's actions, their turn ends immediately.[12] Standard rules impose no time limits on turns.[11] The game continues with players building successively higher and more precarious layers until the tower collapses on a player's turn, at which point that player loses, and the previous player is declared the winner.[12] If multiple blocks fall but the tower remains standing, play resumes with the next player.[11]Strategies
Players employ various techniques to maximize the tower's stability and outmaneuver opponents in Jenga. A key approach is to prioritize removing blocks from the bottom or middle layers, as this helps maintain overall balance without disturbing the structure's base, while avoiding any blocks in the top three completed layers to preserve stability.[13] Before attempting full removal, experienced players test a block's stability by gently tapping or lightly wiggling it to gauge looseness and minimize the risk of causing an early collapse.[14] When placing removed blocks on top, players build new layers evenly by positioning each block perpendicular to the layer below, which promotes structural integrity and prevents uneven weighting that could lead to tipping.[15] Psychological elements play a significant role, as players observe opponents' previous moves to anticipate vulnerabilities and select blocks that complicate the next turn, all while maintaining steady hands under increasing pressure to avoid tremors that could destabilize the tower.[13]Physics and Engineering
Block Design and Materials
The standard Jenga blocks are precision-crafted from hardwood, chosen for its lightweight nature, smooth finish, and balanced weight that facilitates easy handling and stacking during gameplay.[2] Each block measures 7.5 cm in length, 2.5 cm in width, and 1.5 cm in thickness (approximately 3 × 1 × 0.5 inches), with the length being three times the width and five times the thickness to ensure consistent stacking ratios.[16][12] A complete classic Jenga set includes 54 such blocks, intentionally manufactured with subtle variations in dimensions, weight, and surface finish to introduce an element of unpredictability that enhances the game's challenge and replayability.[12][4] The blocks are packaged in a wooden stacking sleeve, which serves dual purposes as both a storage container and the initial base platform for building the tower, allowing players to align and load the blocks precisely before play begins.[12] Additionally, some variants replace wood with durable plastic made from recycled materials, such as discarded fishing nets, to reduce environmental impact while maintaining gameplay integrity.[17][18]Stability Mechanics
The stability of a Jenga tower relies on the principle of the center of mass, where the structure remains upright if the vertical projection of its overall center of mass lies within the base of support provided by the bottom layer.[19] Removing blocks from lower layers elevates this center of mass, narrowing the stability margin and heightening the potential for the tower to tip under minor perturbations.[19] A more precise condition for stability emerges from mathematical analyses of block stacking. The stability lemma states that a Jenga tower is stable if and only if, for every height , the center of mass of the top layers projects onto the interior of the contact area with the layer below.[19] This ensures that each sub-tower—from the top down—is adequately supported, preventing localized imbalances that could propagate into cascading failures across the entire structure.[19] Friction between adjacent block layers plays a critical role in maintaining cohesion during play. Blocks are primarily secured by static friction, which resists relative motion; the frictional force (where is the coefficient of friction and is the normal force from overlying weight) must be overcome for extraction.[20] Gentle, linear sliding during removal minimizes shear forces and preserves the tower's equilibrium by limiting disturbances to adjacent blocks.[20] Variations in block materials, such as wood grain or finish, can subtly alter , influencing extraction ease without fundamentally changing overall stability.[20] Rotational dynamics further dictate collapse risks, particularly from uneven stacking or imprecise pulls. Torque arises when forces act off-center, given by the vector equationwhere is torque, is the position vector from the pivot point, and is the applied force; unbalanced torque induces rotation, causing tipping if it exceeds the restoring moment from gravity.[20] In Jenga, such dynamics are amplified during block manipulation, as rotational forces can shift the center of mass beyond the support base, initiating collapse.[20]