Glass Bead Game → German, Italian. The Glass Bead Game was invented in 1979 by the Dutch game inventor Christian Freeling The game was first described in 1986 in the American GAMES Magazine. The name of this mancala game was taken from Hermann Hesse's world-famous novel Das Glasperlenspiel, which was published in 1943. In the same year, Hesse was put on the Black List of the Nazis. Three years later, the "Tausendjähriges Reich" of the Nazis was reduced to ashes and Hesse received the Nobel Prize in Literature. The Glass Bead Game is closely related to Oware. Both games have in common: