Editing Andy Looney

{{Short description|American game designer and programmer (born 1963)}}
{{Infobox person
| name        = Andrew J. Looney
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| birth_date  = {{Birth date and age|1963|11|5|mf=y}}
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| nationality = American
| known_for   = {{ubl|Game designing|[[Eagle Scout]]}}
| education   =
| employer    = Looney Labs
| occupation  = Game designer
| title       = Chief creative officer
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| spouse      = Kristin (Wunderlich)
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| website     = {{url|wunderland.com}}
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'''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>{{cite journal | last = West  | first = Susan  | title = The Looney Labs Experiment  | journal = [[GAMES magazine]]  | publisher = Games Publications  |date=October 2005  | url=http://www.wunderland.com/LooneyLabs/Press/200510_gamesmag.html }}</ref> where Andrew is the chief creative officer.<ref name="HG"/> Looney Labs has published most of his game designs, such as ''[[Fluxx]]'', ''[[Chrononauts (game)|Chrononauts]]'', and the [[Icehouse (game)|''Icehouse'' game system]].<ref name="rulesofplay">{{Cite book  | last = Salen | first = Katie  | author-link = Katie Salen  | last2 = Zimmerman  | first2 = Eric  | author2-link = Eric Zimmerman  | title = [[Rules of Play]]  | place= Cambridge, Mass.  | publisher = [[The MIT Press]]  | year = 2003  | pages = 546  | isbn = 978-0-262-24045-1 }}</ref> His other game designs include ''[[Aquarius (game)|Aquarius]]'', ''[[Nanofictionary]]'', ''[[IceTowers]]'', ''[[Treehouse (game)|Treehouse]]'', and ''[[Martian Coasters]]''.<ref name="HG"/>

== Biography ==
Andrew Looney as a youth became an Eagle Scout.<ref name="HG">{{Cite book | contribution=[[Cosmic Wimpout]] | title=[[Hobby Games: The 100 Best]] | last=Looney | first=Andrew | editor-last=Lowder | editor-first=James | editor-link=James Lowder | publisher=[[Green Ronin Publishing]] | year=2007 | pages=69–72 | isbn=978-1-932442-96-0}}</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>{{cite news|last1=Barnes|first1=Denise|title=The Looneys devise a game plan|url=http://www.wunderland.com/LooneyLabs/WashingtonTimes.8.27.98.html|access-date=June 18, 2015|work=Washington Times|date=August 27, 1998}}</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>{{cite news|last1=Ford|first1=C. Benjamin|title=Looneys working through the serious business of fun|url=http://ww2.gazette.net/gazette_archive/2002/200247/business/news/132311-1.html|access-date=June 16, 2015|work=The Gazette|publisher=Post Community Media, LLC|date=November 22, 2002|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150617194419/http://ww2.gazette.net/gazette_archive/2002/200247/business/news/132311-1.html|archive-date=June 17, 2015|url-status=dead}}</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 (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 [[Icehouse pieces|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>{{cite news|title=History of Icehouse Games, 1987-1998|url=http://wunderland.com/icehouse/IcehouseHistory1987-98.html|access-date=June 22, 2015|work=wunderland.com|publisher=Looney Labs|date=1998}}</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 (game)|''Icebreaker'']].{{citation needed|date=June 2015}} 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 [[patent]]s on the game mechanics for:

* ''[[Icehouse (game)|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 (game)|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 (game)|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>{{cite web|title=Parents' Choice Award-Winning Company: Looney Labs|url=http://www.parents-choice.org/company.cfm?the_co=3516&from=Loonacy|website=Parents-Choice.org|publisher=Parents' Choice Foundation|access-date=June 24, 2015}}</ref>
* 2007 – Origins Award: Best Board Game or Expansion of the Year for ''[[Treehouse (game)|Treehouse]]''<ref name=icv2>{{cite news|title=2007 Origins Award Winners|url=http://icv2.com/articles/games/view/10881/2007-origins-award-winners|access-date=June 8, 2015|work=ICv2|date=July 9, 2007}}</ref>
* 2008 – Origins Award: Best Traditional Card Game of the Year for ''[[Zombie Fluxx]]''<ref name="origins2008">[http://www.originsgamefair.com/aagad 34th Annual Origins Award Winners] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080418005900/http://www.originsgamefair.com/aagad |date=2008-04-18 }}</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 ==
{{See also|:Category:Andrew_Looney_games}}

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

==References==
{{Reflist}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Looney, Andrew}}
[[Category:1963 births]]
[[Category:Board game designers]]
[[Category:Chess variant inventors]]
[[Category:Living people]]