Inspired by Herman Hesse's "Magister Ludi" (aka The Glass Bead Game), the Glass Plate Game was created by Dunbar Aitkens and Adrian Wolfe after an experimental class at Oregon State University in 1976.

From Dunbar's website (http://www.peak.org/~caploc/):

"Pieces are used to map, against a mosaic, the conversation as players find and discuss connections between ideas represented by various regions of the mosaic. In the sets there are "idea cards" for composing the mosaic, then numbered cubes and colored transparencies for pieces tracking the conversation."