Andy Looney

Andrew J. Looney (born November 5, 1963) is a game designer and computer programmer. He is also a photographer, a cartoonist, a video-blogger, and a marijuana-legalization advocate.<ref name="HG"/>

Andrew and Kristin Looney together founded the games company Looney Labs,<ref name=gms>Template:Cite journal</ref> where Andrew is the chief creative officer.<ref name="HG"/> Looney Labs has published most of his game designs, such as Fluxx, Chrononauts, and the Icehouse game system.<ref name="rulesofplay">Template:Cite book</ref> His other game designs include Aquarius, Nanofictionary, IceTowers, Treehouse, and Martian Coasters.<ref name="HG"/>

Biography

Andrew Looney as a youth became an Eagle Scout.<ref name="HG">Template:Cite book</ref> He entered the University of Maryland at College Park in 1981 as a freshman with an undecided major between English and computer science. He eventually selected computer science.<ref name=wt>Template:Cite news</ref>

He and Kristin, his future spouse, met in 1986 when he started at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center as a software programmer. Kristin was a computer engineer designing computer chips.<ref name=gz>Template:Cite news</ref> Keeping English as a side interest, he wrote "The Empty City", a science-fiction short story. Wanting a game in the story but feeling a card game as too boring, he created a fictional game, Icehouse, that used pyramids. Readers of the short story requested to learn how to play the game. Thus actual rules were invented for Icehouse, then plastic pyramid pieces were made to play the game.<ref name=wt/> The pieces were made from resin in his apartment, which upset the landlord due to the smell. This led them to launch their own game company to sell the Icehouse game.<ref name=gz/> After several years, Looney shut down Icehouse Games, Inc.<ref name="wt"/><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

He and his wife launched Looney Laboratories in 1996 as a part-time home based design company. Andrew soon designed the Fluxx card game.<ref name=wt/> He then went on to a brief career as a game programmer at Magnet Interactive Studios, where he created that company's only entry to the market, Icebreaker.Template:Citation needed Aquarius was Andy's and Labs' next game, launched in 1998.<ref name=wt/> In 2002, a few years after Kristin went full-time with their company, Andy followed.<ref name=gz/>

Patents & awards

Andy has three U.S. patents and five Origins Awards.<ref name=gms/>

Looney holds patents on the game mechanics for:

• Icehouse – U.S. Patent 4,936,585 - Method of manipulating and interpreting playing pieces
  • https://patents.google.com/patent/US4936585A
• IceTowers – U.S. Patent 6,352,262 - Method of conducting simultaneous gameplay using stackable game pieces
  • https://patents.google.com/patent/US6352262B1
• Chrononauts – U.S. Patent 6,474,650 - Method of simulation time travel in a card game
  • https://patents.google.com/patent/US6474650B1

Looney has won the following game design awards:

• 1999 – Mensa Mind Games: Mensa Select Award for Fluxx<ref name=gms/>
• 2000 – Origins Award: Best Abstract Board Game for Icehouse: The Martian Chess Set<ref name=gms/>
• Chrononauts
  • 2000 – Origins Award: Best Traditional Card Game<ref name=gms/>
  • 2001 – Parents Choice Silver Honors<ref name=gms/>
• 2001 – Origins Award: Best Abstract Board Game for Cosmic Coasters<ref name=gms/>
• 2003 – Parents Choice Silver Honors Nanofictionary<ref name=pca>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

• 2007 – Origins Award: Best Board Game or Expansion of the Year for Treehouse<ref name=icv2>Template:Cite news</ref>
• 2008 – Origins Award: Best Traditional Card Game of the Year for Zombie Fluxx<ref name="origins2008">34th Annual Origins Award Winners Template:Webarchive</ref>
• Fall 2013 – Parents' Choice Recommended Seal category Games for Fluxx: The Board Game<ref name=pca/>
• Spring 2014 – Parents' Choice FunStuff Award for Loonacy<ref name=pca/>

Works

• Aquarius
• Chrononauts (game)
  • Early American Chrononauts
• Cosmic Coasters
• Fluxx
  • EcoFluxx
  • Family Fluxx
  • Zombie Fluxx
  • Monty Python Fluxx
  • Martian Fluxx
  • Stoner Fluxx
  • Star Fluxx
  • Cartoon Network Fluxx
  • Regular Show Fluxx
  • Adventure Time Fluxx
  • Holiday Fluxx
  • Cthulhu Fluxx
  • Pirate Fluxx
  • Oz Fluxx
  • Monster Fluxx
• Icebreaker
• Icehouse and other games played with the Icehouse pieces:
  • IceTowers
  • Martian Chess
  • Treehouse
  • Zark City
• Nanofictionary
• Proton
• Q*Turn