Welcome to the Looney News update for April 13, 2007!
Looney Academy Update
Treehouse - the word conjures up thoughts of playing as a kid, having fun in the depths of a shady grove in the middle of a warm summer day. While those warm, lazy summer days are still a bit away (especially when snow plagues the Midwest Office of Looney Labs, which is currently enjoying a "Norwegian Summer"), the fun and educational values of Treehouse are here now!
This month, the Looney Academy focuses on Treehouse, the Pyramid-Game-In-A-Tube, discovering that such concepts as rotational symmetry, linear translation and geometric transformation are found in the simple moves of Aim, Hop and Dig. The Pyramids are a natural "math manipulative" (another new term for some of us here) lending themselves to hundreds of uses in a classroom: counting, sorting, sizing, color matching... all great skills that kids learn best through play. Check out the Academy - and pass along the link to all your teacher friends.
Also: The Earth Day EcoFluxx Teacher's special is available until the end of April - make sure you get the classroom set of decks you need before Earth Day!
Looney Labs in the News
Joe Peterson released a podcast for episode 5 of the Abstract Gamer Podcast: Icehouse & piecepack, Alien City. Joe discusses game systems, including Icehouse and piecepack. He then gives a review of Alien City and also introduces the first Abstract Gamer Contest.
This is a new regular feature where Andy talks about our games and answers questions on such things as rules, clarification of game play, tips and strategies, etc.
This week: Andy Plays a Treehouse Sample Game
Consumers - Looking for Fluxx Blanxx?
THE BAD NEWS: We're temporarily out of Fluxx Blanxx, and it will be a little while before we get a new print run in.
THE GOOD NEWS: we only JUST ran out of them, so they might still be available in your friendly neighborhood game store - check our store roster and call a store near you to see if they have them. Or you can order them online still at Paizo.com. (If you run an online game store that has Fluxx Blanxx in stock, let us know and we'll list your store here. If you find one of these stores has since run out, please let us know!)
Earth Day Specials!
Earth Day is just around the corner, on April 22nd, and we're celebrating with two specials:
For Consumers, an EcoFluxx Special! You'll save $2 off a copy of EcoFluxx, and we'll also throw in a FREE Earth Keeper promo card and some FREE EcoFluxx Pledge Cards.
Teacher's Special! - Teachers get a 30% discount on a set of 6 decks, and it comes with free EcoFluxx Pledge Cards!
Please wish everyone you know a Happy Earth Day, play EcoFluxx with as many people as you can, and give pledge cards out to everybody you encounter. And remember - Looney Labs is donating a portion of the profits from EcoFluxx to help environmental groups working to care for our Earth!
Andy Looney is Now Totally Available!
Get your the UNSIGNED Andy Looney Promo Card. Andy got so many requests for autographs on a blank Keeper card that he made a Keeper of himself to give away to autograph seekers. Andy will continue to give these cards away for free to anyone he meets in person who wants his autograph, but if you don't anticipate ever getting to see Andy in person or are a collector who wants every card that exists, now you can order an un-autographed individual card because Andy Looney is Now Totally Available!
The card says "Not valid without Andy's autograph" and "Counts as the Brain." Up until now, there haven't been any non-valid Andy Looney cards in circulation, but now that we're making them available for sale, we'd like to explicitly note that if this card is in use without Andy's authentic signature, it does NOT count as the Brain.
Don't Forget About These Consumer Specials!
Get a FREE copy of the new promo card The Computer when you purchase over $25 worth of games (before Shipping).
Get a FREE copy of Flowers & Fluxx AND two copies of The Computer when you purchase over $100 worth of games (before shipping).
You have to put these into your shopping cart yourself though, so don't forget!
Please Take our Fluxx Surveys!
Kristin has put a call out to Retailers everywhere - if you have ever sold the card game Fluxx, please take our Fluxx Resellers Survey! We're looking for advice on what marketing materials we can provide to help your store celebrate the 10th Anniversary of Fluxx! The survey includes questions about the packaging and marketing ideas, as well as in store gaming and promotions. Please help us help you sell more Fluxx decks!
Consumers - If you've played Fluxx, even once, please take our Fluxx Consumer Survey! This year marks the 10th anniversary of Fluxx, and we're doing this market survey to better understand our customer base and to help us start making plans for the next ten years! It should take only 5 to 10 minutes to take - and we'll give you $2 off your next order in our online store to say Thank You for taking the survey!
IMPORTANT NOTE to Firefox users: Survey Monkey has a known problem with the Firefox browser, if you have easy access to another browser, you should use that browser to take the survey. You can take this survey with Firefox, but it has this odd jumping around display problem when clicking check boxes sometimes. It works, but it's annoying.
What's a "Looney Show"? A Looney Show is an event at which one or more of the people actually named Looney will show up in person to help with the running of Looney Labs events.
What's a "Rabbit Show"? A Rabbit Show is an event at which Looney Labs gaming will be hosted by one or more of the official Looney Labs volunteer helpers, known as Mad Lab Rabbits (possibly with the further assistance of representatives from the company not named Looney).
Consumers - If you've played Fluxx, even once, please take our 
