Andrew Looney

From Wikinfo

Andrew J. Looney, better known as Andrew Looney, is an award-winning game designer and computer programmer.

Andy, his wife Kristin, and Alison Frane together run the games company Looney Labs, which has published most of his game designs, such as Fluxx, Chrononauts, and the Icehouse game system. The three self-described "Modern Hippies" publish the details of their personal and business life every Thursday at Wunderland.com.

Before starting Looney Labs with his wife Kristin, they both worked at NASA, where in 1993 some of Andy's software was launched into orbit as part of the repairs to the Hubble Space Telescope. 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.

Patents & Awards

Andy holds patents on the game mechanics for Icehouse and Chrononauts:

Method of manipulating and interpreting playing pieces (U.S. Patent 4,936,585)
Method of conducting simultaneous gameplay using stackable game pieces (U.S. Patent 6,352,262)
Method of simulation time travel in a card game (U.S. Patent 6,474,650)

He has also won three Origins Awards for game design from the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design:

2000: Best Traditional Card Game for Chrononauts
2000: Best Abstract Board Game for Icehouse
2001: Best Abstract Board Game for Cosmic Coasters

Games

Some of Andy Looney's games:

Aquarius
Chrononauts
- Early American Chrononauts
Cosmic Coasters
Fluxx
- Stoner Fluxx
- EcoFluxx
- Family Fluxx
- Fluxx Translations
  - German Fluxx
  - Japanese Fluxx
  - Fluxx Español
- Fluxx Expansions
  - Holy Fluxx
    - Christian Fluxx
    - Jewish Fluxx
Icebreaker
Icehouse and other games played with the Icehouse pieces:
- Gridlock
- Hailstorm
- IceTowers
- Igloo
- Martian Chess
- Martian Coasters
- StarRunners
- Treehouse
- Trice
Monochrome Chess
Nanofictionary
Proton
Q-Turn