Andrew Looney
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Andrew J. Looney (1963– ), better known as Andy Looney is an award-winning game designer, writer, cartoonist, photographer, computer programmer, Eagle Scout, activist, and self-declared "Emperor of the Universe."
Andy, his wife Kristen, 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 (http://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.
Patents & Awards
Andy holds patents on the game mechanics for Icehouse and Chrononauts:
- Method of manipulating and interpreting playing pieces (http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=/netahtml/srchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=4936585.WKU.&OS=PN/4936585&RS=PN/4936585) (U.S. Patent)
- Method of conducting simultaneous gameplay using stackable game pieces (http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=/netahtml/search-bool.html&r=4&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=ptxt&s1=Andrew.INZZ.&s2=Looney.INZZ.&OS=IN/Andrew+AND+IN/Looney&RS=IN/Andrew+AND+IN/Looney) (U.S. Patent)
- Method of simulation time travel in a card game (http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&u=/netahtml/search-adv.htm&r=1&p=1&f=G&l=50&d=ptxt&S1=((((simulation+AND+time)+AND+travel)+AND+card)+AND+game).TTL.&OS=ttl/(simulation+and+time+and+travel+and+card+and+game)&RS=TTL/((((simulation+AND+time)+AND+travel)+AND+card)+AND+game)) (U.S. Patent)
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
- Icebreaker
- Icehouse and other games played with the Icehouse pieces:
- Monochrome Chess
- Nanofictionary
- Proton
- Q-Turn