Looney Labs
Encyclopedia
Looney Labs is a small game company based in College Park
, Maryland
, USA. It is named after its founders, Andrew Looney
and Kristin Looney.
, whose rules and goals change as the result of its players' actions, and Chrononauts
, themed around time travel. Both of these were designed by Andrew Looney and derive much of their popularity from the whimsical, unpredictable nature that he tends to give his games. While a player can definitely benefit from an overall strategy, the games are random enough to demand far more short-term tactical skill than long-term planning ability.
Looney Labs publishes a number of less popular card and board games (see Andrew Looney
for a more complete list), but one of particular note is Are You a Werewolf?, Andrew Plotkin's
thematic variant of Mafia
. The game, which requires a relatively large number of people to play, is especially popular at game conventions such as Origins, where it frequently draws in players (and sometimes entire families) from other areas of the convention.
, small, colorful plastic pyramids useful for playing a variety of games as well as inventing new ones. In one sense they are the Labs' flagship product, being the original motivation for the company's launch (as "Icehouse Games, Inc.") in the 1980s, but they have yet to bring the company anything approaching the financial success of its card games. Rules for various Icehouse games are available on the web, as well as in the book Playing with Pyramids, which the Looneys publish.
Since 1999, Looney Labs has sold the pyramids in a variety of formats, but the game remains a cult phenomenon at best; the Looneys have yet to find a profitable packaging and marketing formula that appeals to a broad base of gamers. After unsuccessfully trying to sell four-color, 60-piece boxes, the company switched to a strategy of selling the pyramids in single-color, 15-piece tubes. In 2006 the company began phasing these out in favor of five-color, 15-piece tubes marketed as Treehouse, a stand-alone game.
Looney Labs hopes that this strategy of primarily selling a single game rather than an entire abstract game system will lead to more interest in Icehouse. The company has taken this strategy before with popular Icehouse games such as Ice Towers and Zendo
, which were briefly available as standalone games sold in colorful retail packaging resembling that of more traditional board games. These did not last long in print, however, due to disappointing sales (despite Zendo winning the Origins Award
for best abstract board game in 2003). The company is now betting that Treehouses minimalist form and lower price tag will win the broad appeal that these games failed to capture.
apparent in the games that he designs, slipping in various references to marijuana
and its attendant culture. These include the players' ability to legalize marijuana through timeline manipulation in Chrononauts, or the clock reading 4:20 that can be seen on one Fluxx card. More recently, the company has published Stoner Fluxx, a variant of the popular game that is an overt celebration of pot and the fight to legalize its consumption in the USA. Their first run of Stoner Fluxx was published under the Looney Labs banner, but the desire to keep the main company more "family-friendly" has prompted the Looneys to create an imprint company, Fully Baked ideas, for future release of Stoner Fluxx and other "adult-oriented games". To date, this also includes one future project, tentatively titled Drinking Fluxx.
College Park, Maryland
College Park is a city in Prince George's County, Maryland, USA. The population was 30,413 at the 2010 census. It is best known as the home of the University of Maryland, College Park, and since 1994 the city has also been home to the "Archives II" facility of the U.S...
, Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
, USA. It is named after its founders, Andrew Looney
Andrew Looney
Andrew J. Looney , better known as Andy Looney, is an award-winning game designer and computer programmer.- Biography :...
and Kristin Looney.
Card games
The company is probably best known for its card games, especially FluxxFluxx
Fluxx is a card game, played with a specially designed deck. It is different from most other card games, in that the rules and the conditions for winning are altered throughout the game, via cards played by the players.-History:...
, whose rules and goals change as the result of its players' actions, and Chrononauts
Chrononauts
Chrononauts is a card game that simulates popular fictional ideas about how time travellers might alter history, drawing on sources like Back to the Future and the short stories collection Travels Through Time. The game was designed by Andrew Looney in 2000 and is published by Looney Labs...
, themed around time travel. Both of these were designed by Andrew Looney and derive much of their popularity from the whimsical, unpredictable nature that he tends to give his games. While a player can definitely benefit from an overall strategy, the games are random enough to demand far more short-term tactical skill than long-term planning ability.
Looney Labs publishes a number of less popular card and board games (see Andrew Looney
Andrew Looney
Andrew J. Looney , better known as Andy Looney, is an award-winning game designer and computer programmer.- Biography :...
for a more complete list), but one of particular note is Are You a Werewolf?, Andrew Plotkin's
Andrew Plotkin
Andrew Plotkin , also known as Zarf, is a central figure in the modern interactive fiction community. Having both written a number of award-winning games and developed a range of new file formats, interpreters, and other utilities for the design, production, and running of IF games, Plotkin is...
thematic variant of Mafia
Mafia (game)
Mafia is a party game created in the USSR by Dimitry Davidoff in 1986, modelling a battle between an informed minority and an uninformed majority. Players are secretly assigned roles: either "mafia", who know each other; or "townspeople", who know only the number of mafia amongst them. In the...
. The game, which requires a relatively large number of people to play, is especially popular at game conventions such as Origins, where it frequently draws in players (and sometimes entire families) from other areas of the convention.
Icehouse pyramids
Looney Labs also produces and sells Icehouse piecesIcehouse pieces
Icehouse pieces are pyramid-shaped gaming pieces invented by Andrew Looney and John Cooper in 1987, originally for use in the game of Icehouse.- Description :...
, small, colorful plastic pyramids useful for playing a variety of games as well as inventing new ones. In one sense they are the Labs' flagship product, being the original motivation for the company's launch (as "Icehouse Games, Inc.") in the 1980s, but they have yet to bring the company anything approaching the financial success of its card games. Rules for various Icehouse games are available on the web, as well as in the book Playing with Pyramids, which the Looneys publish.
Since 1999, Looney Labs has sold the pyramids in a variety of formats, but the game remains a cult phenomenon at best; the Looneys have yet to find a profitable packaging and marketing formula that appeals to a broad base of gamers. After unsuccessfully trying to sell four-color, 60-piece boxes, the company switched to a strategy of selling the pyramids in single-color, 15-piece tubes. In 2006 the company began phasing these out in favor of five-color, 15-piece tubes marketed as Treehouse, a stand-alone game.
Looney Labs hopes that this strategy of primarily selling a single game rather than an entire abstract game system will lead to more interest in Icehouse. The company has taken this strategy before with popular Icehouse games such as Ice Towers and Zendo
Zendo (game)
Zendo is a game of inductive logic designed by Kory Heath in which one player creates a rule for structures to follow, and the other players try to discover it by building and studying various koans which follow or break the rule...
, which were briefly available as standalone games sold in colorful retail packaging resembling that of more traditional board games. These did not last long in print, however, due to disappointing sales (despite Zendo winning the Origins Award
Origins Award
The Origins Awards are American awards for outstanding work in the game industry. They are presented by the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design at the Origins Game Fair on an annual basis for the previous year, so the 1979 awards were given at the 1980 Origins.The Origins Award is commonly...
for best abstract board game in 2003). The company is now betting that Treehouses minimalist form and lower price tag will win the broad appeal that these games failed to capture.
Activism
Looney sometimes makes his opposition to American marijuana prohibitionWar on Drugs
The War on Drugs is a campaign of prohibition and foreign military aid and military intervention being undertaken by the United States government, with the assistance of participating countries, intended to both define and reduce the illegal drug trade...
apparent in the games that he designs, slipping in various references to marijuana
Cannabis (drug)
Cannabis, also known as marijuana among many other names, refers to any number of preparations of the Cannabis plant intended for use as a psychoactive drug or for medicinal purposes. The English term marijuana comes from the Mexican Spanish word marihuana...
and its attendant culture. These include the players' ability to legalize marijuana through timeline manipulation in Chrononauts, or the clock reading 4:20 that can be seen on one Fluxx card. More recently, the company has published Stoner Fluxx, a variant of the popular game that is an overt celebration of pot and the fight to legalize its consumption in the USA. Their first run of Stoner Fluxx was published under the Looney Labs banner, but the desire to keep the main company more "family-friendly" has prompted the Looneys to create an imprint company, Fully Baked ideas, for future release of Stoner Fluxx and other "adult-oriented games". To date, this also includes one future project, tentatively titled Drinking Fluxx.
External links
- Looney Labs' homepage
- Fully Baked Ideas' homepage
- Icehouse games homepage
- Wunderland.com, a weekly newsletter by Andrew Looney, as well as a large collection of creative webpages by the Looneys and their friends