Looney Labs - Geeks Love Our Games!

Geeks love Looney Labs Games - here are some reasons why:

Fluxx is a quick card game from Looney Labs and is one of the strangest games I've ever played. Every time a card is played some aspect of the game changes. Either the rules change, the goal changes or the players are forced to swap cards in some fashion. I love this game because of the hilarious situations the game puts you in over and over. For example, it is not unheard of for a player to win by accidentally having the right combination of cards in front of them as another player is forced to change the goal against their will. As an appetizer Fluxx is perfect since it's possible for new players to join the game in the middle of a hand and it can be watched to be learned. Cam Turner / Geek from his list of 11 Best Geek Board Games
Looney Labs games have just the right mix of random and strategy. My husband, who was a computer science and math major, likes games like Volcano and Zendo, which require planning, pattern recognition, and logic. Most games can be picked up and learned in a few minutes, allowing for everyone to start having fun right away. Looney Labs games get your brain going in different ways and are great for all sorts of people, especially geeks. Melissa Parish Software Analyst	Looney Labs Games are designed by geeks (two former NASA engineers) for general audiences. Their games are easy to understand and teach, with short rule sets, so they're easy to introduce to skeptical new players. However, the games are clever enough in their mechanics to keep analytical types engaged. Everybody has fun, so Crazy Eights players and Bridge players can meet at the same table. Elliott C. "Eeyore" Evans Technical Writer
If there's one thing geeks love, it's customization. The mod culture, the Do It Yourself (DIY) culture, they both run very strong in the geek community. Treehouse and Icehouse Pieces fit right into that niche. One Treehouse set, and you've already got a variety of games with the ability to create more. More Treehouse sets, and you've got the ability to tap into the vast DIY culture and history of Icehouse. From custom-made pieces to unique fan-created games, every aspect of the system taps into the dig-in-and-do vibe that most geeks have in spades. Nearly all the Looney Labs games tap into that same aesthetic -- Fluxx, Chrononauts, NanoFictionary, they don't only allow for customization, they practically -ask- for it. The open-source geeks will love the idea of being able to write and wiki any kind of games they like! There's also the collector's aesthetic that most geeks love -- Treehouse/Icehouse in particular lends itself to the Dragon Dice / Magic: the Gathering player's habits, but a complete set can be had without breaking the bank! And the bonus is that customized or out of the box, the games are just as engaging for the family and friends of geeks. Fluxx in particular makes a great party game for everything from kids birthdays to family Thanksgiving, late-night college fests and low-key nights at home. The rules are usually 'a moment to learn, a lifetime to master' and because they're very down to earth and tech-simple themselves, they lack any stigma that some other 'geek' games have on them. Laurie J. Rich feminist poet geek
Fluxx tickles a common geek funny-bone; geeks tend to love anything meta, or higher-order. A game in which the cards change the rules of the game as you play allows geeks to manipulate the game from within the game, satisfying that meta-hacking instinct, and is also just fun for geeks who like to tinker and change things. I usually get more fun out of setting up interesting combinations of rules (draw 4, play 5, X=X+1, or maybe draw 5, play 1, first play random, better watch out for that 10 cards in hand goal) that just make the game chaotic and crazy, or that make the strategy change in interesting ways, than I do by trying to win. Icehouse is an ideal geek game system. It is a modular, reusable component, much more elegant and efficient than the the bulky, single use boards and pieces used by most games. It has proven to be a wonderful system for experimentation and game design, as an open system that anyone can tinker with. Furthermore, numerous Icehouse games are great geek games; RAMbots lets you program robots, Zendo is a beautiful game of inductive logic, Homeworlds is a great game of scientific conquest, and so on. The sheer elegance, beauty, and simplicity of the Icehouse game system, combined with the great games that are available for it, make it my absolute favorite game system, and in fact several of the games are my favorite games. Brian Campbell Educational Games Programmer
I think that one of the geekiest things about the Looney Labs games is the way people find out about them. Either you see them in a FLGS (Friendly Local Game Store) that often carries other geek staples like D&D, Magic and stuff like that - or you hear about them more often than not on the internet or at gaming conventions. I've also seen them for sale at comic conventions, Ren Faires - anywhere that geeks congregate. The whole homegrown nature of what the Looney's have done with the games and their business really appeals to the "Make" culture of doing things for yourself. Open sourcing things - making the development of new games open to beta testers....These are all geek things.... Rob Usdin Geek	Pyramids are just cool. It's like a modern deck of cards. Such simple pieces that are easily recognisable, but so wide in the variety of games you can play. Cheap to get into to play things like Treehouse and Martian Coasters. A little more can give you many many more options. But unlike Collectible Card Games, there's a finite limit to what you need to get to be able to play everything. Want more variety? Go check out some games online! Got an idea for a game? Design it, get other fans to play test it, and then post it online to share the wealth. Timothy Hunt Internet Geek
I was introduced to Fluxx at a Hacker's convention (the non-pejorative version of that term) while eating lunch. Someone came over, asked if a group of us wanted to play this game called Fluxx, and began playing. I missed most of the rest of the conference that day. Looney Labs Games appeal to some very basic geek instincts - Fluxx has a very "software" feel to it - you're changing variables, trying to match changing conditions, and those conditions are almost all boolean conditions. Try to program Fluxx (and so many have!) and you realize how much like a program the game mechanics are. And what Geek hasn't wanted to travel through time? Chrononauts gives you a time machine and a timeline to play with! The "programmer" influence there is obvious as well - rules for changing the timeline are boolean operators. Not only are the pyramids visually "futuristic", but their games tap into many of the same themes that geeks fall into: RAM-bots is programming with pyramids, while Zendo is a deep game of logic couched in mystical terms. And then it comes as no surprise that all these spring from someone who is a geek himself. Everything about Andy screams "geek". Who but a geek would create a room in his house wallpapered with maps? Who but a geek would install a model train running through multiple rooms in their house? Populate the rooms with pinball and videogames, including a videogame he wrote? Assemble his storm-trooper action figures into a kick-line? While there are many geeks that are programmers, and many geeks that are involved in the space program, Andy Looney is a geek who now makes his living making wonderful games for other geeks like us to enjoy. Thanks Andy! Allen "Prisoner" Firstenberg Software Geek