           2005
Testimonials of the Week |
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3 quotes from the trio of reviews of Chrononauts currently featured on Amazon.com (all of which give it a 5 star rating):
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"A friend introduced me to Fluxx, which I instantly fell in love with, and then I found you at Origins this past summer. My life hasn't been the same since!! You guys are the GREATEST!!" -- Diane S. of Saint Louis, comments with order #80430 | |
| "One of my old work buddies introduced me to Fluxx, and I played about 300-400 games of it while I was pretending to work." -- comments with an order from Daniel B. | "I'm writing this letter in thanks for the great holiday card you sent out. This Monday had been going really cruddy for me and I had an overall bad day, but when I got home my mom told me I had some mail. I saw I had a letter from Looney Labs and wondered what it was. When I opened it up and saw the great Tirade art on the front I felt great that you guys sent me a card. When I opened it up and the three promo cards and the mini-catalog fell out I was thrilled. To cheer myself up even further I stopped at the mall and picked up a copy of Eco-Fluxx. Thanks for the card Looney Labs, it really brightened up my day!" -- email from a Fluxx fan named Brett | |
| "Dear Looney Labs: I would like to start by saying Thank you! My family and I have enjoyed many hours sharing Fluxx with all of the people we know. It's a great game that kids and adults can play together. A terrific concept that has motivated my sons to become creators of new cards as well as new games! I have attended Origins gamefest for the last three years and GenCon gamefests for the last four or five. I ran into your booth at Origins and played IceTowers, which I had to purchase on the spot. With the IceTowers purchase I received your advertising card... and then ordered Fluxx, some Blanxx, Cosmic Coasters and the rest is great history." -- message with a SASE request from Doug P. | "P.S. They put up a 'Toys For Tots' box at my office today. In prior years my standard 'toy' for the box has been a copy of Scrabble. I figure, if I'm going to give some kid a toy at least it should be something fun and potentially educational. This year I think it's going to have to be a few Looney Labs games instead. Nothing against Scrabble but I simply MUST continue to spread the Fluxx Love!" -- email from Di | "I had to play Fluxx to get aquatinted with it for a Demo I have to do this weekend, and discovered I love it to pieces. My Hard core Chrononaut-ness prevents me from saying it's the best game I have ever played, but they are both very very excellent games, both for their own reason. I'd say they're tied." -- comments from a rabbit named Michael |
| "As none of us had played EcoFluxx before, surprises abounded as we were able to compost the deck, frogs went extinct, dirt became polluted, and insects became poisonous. We were only able to play one game before I had to move to another table, but I know at least one player bought the game from one of the vendors at their earliest opportunity." -- Seth Ruskin's UberCon Rabbit Report | "If your only exposure to Looney Labs has been through Fluxx, you are doing yourself a disservice by not exploring the world of Icehouse. It is a world full of analytical, calculating games and Martian Chess is one of the best. It is a game that will change the way you look at abstract strategy games, chess boards and pyramids." -- Lowell Kempf, "A Game of Changing Pieces and Shifting Ground" | "A coworker on a traveling job with me made me play Fluxx all over the country, in bars, cafes, RV repair place waiting rooms... I bought my own deck in Louisville, and then I taught it to my cousin in California. It's been a long journey." -- Stephanie D, comments with order #79212 |
| "OMG Pandora's Box (the card) is evil!!!! :-) :-) :-) I played a game of Fluxx with a friend last night, and it went on for over 90 minutes!! One game!! We used Pandora's box about 5 or 6 times during the game, between it first coming into play, a couple of 'Let's do that again's, and a few reshuffles of the deck. It was ultimately a Pandora's box play that ended the game, forcing a 'Play All' where I had to play a goal for which he already had the Keepers on the table. I love it! And I love my boxxes, too. :-) Just thought I'd give my opinion. The rest of you guys *have* to get these things. :-D" --Jen Breland, on the Rabbits mailing list | "This guy... he had a deck of cards. Everything sorta goes blurry after that. We were all yelling and throwing cards at the table. It was like the world around us was changing with every round. And then I won. And I wanted more." -- Comments with an order for Fluxx from Tamas B. of Bellevue, WA | "I first discovered Looney Labs when Chrononauts was first being talked about. I saw some info on it in a retailer solicitation and it sounded like the coolest game ever! And it is! Since then I have continued to search out all Looney Labs games... I also got a girl to date me and fall in love with me over Chrononauts. 'Got' is a bad choice of words, but the promo card I gave her certainly helped me appeal to her. Viva La Chrononauts! Thank you for the love of my life." -- Daniel Cisek's rabbit bio |
| You've got to hand it to Looney Labs. They know how to design simple, fun, sociable games that serious gamers, dilettantes and kids alike can enjoy. My husband and I first discovered Looney Labs years ago, when we picked up a copy of Fluxx. The next year, we discovered Chrononauts, the time travel game, soon to be followed by Chrononauts: the Early American edition. Our five-year-old son enjoys all of these games, even though they're not quite age-appropriate, in that they require significant reading. So when a friend recently recommended Looney Lab's Aquarius card game as fun for kids and adults alike and requiring only minimal reading, we knew we had to pick up a deck. Our son, you see, has become a game fiend in recent months and finding games that are suitable for him, but tolerable or -- dare we hope? -- even genuinely fun for us has become a matter of self-preservation. Aquarius, I am happy to report, fits the bill perfectly. Something of a cross between classic dominos and Fluxx, with a dash of 70s nostalgia thrown in for atmosphere, Aquarius is trivially easy to learn and surprisingly engaging for a game in which luck, more often than not, trumps strategy. Two to five players can play and even the youngest players, if capable of counting to seven and memorizing the meanings of a handful of symbols, need not feel disadvantaged. The brightly-colored, psychedelic 60-card deck features various permutations of five basic 'element' illustrations... They are pretty darn cool illustrations, and invariably draw admiring attention. This game is fun and it knows how to flaunt it." -- 5 star review of Aquarius at Epinions.com | ||
| "To The Fluxx Crew: Wow! What a great Game. First I'd like to thank you all for your efforts in making a wonderful game. I purchased a pack of 3.0 Fluxx last night and have played at least 20 games. My wife and I were up all night laughing at the insanity of it all. When I woke up this morning I could only think of one thing... I've got to get more! I just knew the pack of cards I had couldn't be it. I quickly found your website and browsed the many wonderful card ideas..." -- message with a SASE request from Travis H. | "I run the Original Game Shop in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and am a avid Fluxx player. It (Fluxx) is the only game in my store on which I offer a moneyback guarentee. If you don't like it, bring it back! I've done this since First edition, almost ten years, and have never had to give money back. I love the game, and demo it all de time. Long live the Emperor Looney!" -- Ben Hopkin's Rabbit Bio | "This game is so simple we couldn't believe it! Draw one, Play one...Then the rules change. My video game crazed children LOVE Fluxx. Now when their friends come over they ask to play Fluxx. What better review is that?? 9, 10 & 11 yrs olds ask to play cards instead of Playstation!! OH! I haven't seen any of the children get mad or frustrated when they lose either...the rules change so quick no one has time to get mad! ;-)" -- L. Kambarn (Chincoteague, VA), commenting on Fluxx at Amazon.com |
| "Fluxx involves a variety of school-appropriate activities and skills. Like any good game, especially one with elements of strategy and abstraction, Fluxx is a good exercise for mental agility. Like chess, it promotes prediction with limited information and problem solving with limited resources. By the nature of its play, Fluxx involves all of the following skill areas: Kinesthetic learning, Number sense, Problem-solving, Reading comprehension, and Social skills. Fluxx, like any well-designed game, offers many real opportunities for learning. Bounce off some teachers and parents the factors just listed and see if they don't find new uses for Fluxx and other games in their classrooms and homes." -- David Millians, "Working in Fluxx," Comics & Games Retailer, June 2005, pages 22-23 | "That's gotta be the best 20 minutes of chaotic, concentrated fun I've had all weekend." -- Brett Nicholas, commenting on Giant Circular Fluxx at GenCon 2005 (as reported by Marc Hartstein) | |
| "During lunch, we dove right into the game--paying little regard to the rules that were packaged with it, and immediately fell in love with it. We must've played eighty or so games in the span of nine hours. We even played it while watching the movie we rented for the night. It was magical--and then we collapsed and fell asleep. Fluxx was my gateway drug into the realm that is known only as Looney Labs. My life was never the same again...." -- comments with an order from Pat F. | "One mother and children became regulars that day at the tables. Already owning Fluxx, the mother and two children were keen to see what else there was to offer. They played Zendo and Aquarius and when they were ready to leave they asked what other games we had (just for reference). I mentioned Chrononauts and they liked the sound of it but to play later, but when I outlined the premise of Nanofictionary they were dragging mother back to the table to play! When they finally left the little boy was begging his mother to buy Nanofictionary (which was on sale just next to us at the stall near our tables). 'No, we have to buy Daddy's present,' said the mother. 'Buy him Nanofictionary!' said the young convert excitedly." -- Rabbit report submitted by Nimrod Jones | |
| "Last night we were at the hospital waiting for my granddaughter to arrive in this realm and to pass the time between contractions my wife, my daughter (the mother to be) and myself played Fluxx. The nurse cast inquisitive looks at us and the games in progress and eventually came in on her break to ask about the game. I showed her the rule sheet and she watched us finish up a game. Then she asked if she could borrow it a second to show to the other nurses. Of course I said yes. She came back and asked where she could get a copy. I directed her to the website. I would like to say that Fluxx took away all the pain of labor, but it didn't. (Maybe Stoner Fluxx, but the hospital might have a problem with that). It did however take our minds off the current event and reduce the stress levels." -- email from a Rabbit named Kermit | "We've had Fluxx for a long time. Every time we play it, we laugh a lot. At the end of the game, we always agree that it's a terrible, horrible, no-fair game and that we'd better play again immediately. Totally zany, and I'll never admit how much I love it." -- Heather Madrone's Rabbit bio | "My son played Fluxx and Nanofictionary while working on a mission trip in West Virginia -- kids from a California church introduced the game to the group, which included churches from Florida and Chicago. Our son loved both games. We're anti-drug conservative carnivorous Christian Republicans -- but we do like flowers, happiness, bright colors, long hair, the environment, creativity and games! Don't you just love America? May you have a peaceful, joyful day -- and thanks for helping us to keep thinking and smiling with your games!" -- Sandra of St. Petersburg, FL |
| "I found Fluxx at a local bookstore. My eight-year-old son loves playing card and board games with me, but usually bounces from one to another. Since we started playing Fluxx, he loves it and almost always wants to play it. So we had to look for blanxx and expansions." -- Joseph of Allegan, MI | "It's hard for me to remember what was my first exposure to Looney Labs. Was it a random Fluxx game at Origins? Was it one of the all night sessions of Are You A Werewolf? at GenCon? About a year and a half ago, I decided to get a copy of Fluxx in order to carry it around in my pocket. That was the start of a game collection that has grown to a obsessive compulsive side." -- Lowell K, comments with order #77723 | |
| "The Annual Fluxx Tourney was a huge success. To win, you had to be the first person to accumulate three wins in the finals on Sunday afternoon. It was hilarious to see the winner open Flowers and Fluxx, toss the deck to another player (the winner already had a deck), pass out the flowers to others around him, then with a huge smile remove and add to his own deck the Flower Keeper. He just wanted the card!" -- Amy's report on Sci Fi Summer 2005 | "Thanks for the support, the games look great, the display looks great, and the upsells and catalogs look great. We made a good choice by adding you to our product line." -- a new Looney Labs retailer, Jared of Distraction Games, after receiving our POP display | "Independent board game designer and publisher Andrew Looney presents some very hard-learned and heart-felt lessons about what you'll be going through while making your Graded Course Project for this class. The best part is that he's an entertaining (as well as informative) read. We played his Fluxx game in class." -- comments about Andy's "11 Game Design Principles" article which is featured on the research reading list for a game design class |
| "I wanted to write you in response to your post on the 28th and the week before about your rationale for not sending your product to be produced in China. I wanted to commend you on what had to be a difficult decision. I'm currently living in WV and have seen first hand chemical plants, manufacturing plants, and the like all close up shop to move to China or Mexico and have witnessed the crippling effect it has on small-town economies. I moved back to this state because my hippy ideals wanted a place where I could afford to buy some land and grow some of my own food and hopefully slowly work my way off the grid as much as I can and when I read your post about being willing to postpone short-term financial gain for your higher ideals it really moved me... I just wanted to let you know that I for one and many others really have a great deal of admiration for you being willing to not cave into the awful globalized economic structure built on virtually slave labor. Keep fighting the good fight and producing some killer games!" -- email from Ryan F. | "I think that Fluxx is the best game ever invented!!!!" -- Jami of Keizer, Oregon | "I think these are the greatest games ever made. My friends and I used to play Chrononauts in our US History class when the teacher gave us study time. 'Hey Mr. Vargish... I just killed Hitler!'" -- Kelly Cooley's Rabbit bio |
| "I went to my Mom's house on Sunday (Mother's Day) and when I walked in there was a Fluxx deck sitting on the kitchen table, and it had nothing to do with me. Her live-in bought it for her for Mother's Day because a friend told him about it. I'm no demographics expert, but you couldn't hope for more mainstream customers than my Mom and her boyfriend Dave. Video game publishers would literally kill for that kind of mass appeal." -- email from Paul, whom Andy used to work with in the videogame programming biz | "Throughout the weekend I managed to play every single game in the Little Experiment (Fluxx, Aquarius, Cosmic Coasters, Chrononauts, NanoFictionary, Are You a Werewolf?, IceTowers, Zendo, and Volcano), most games numerous times. I love demoing these games. I love watching people as they catch on to key concepts, and I love it when they win. It's awesome all around. I've not met a Looney Lab game that I didn't like, and that love of the games definitely helps me demo them. Players see how much I love the games, how enthusiastic I am about them, and it catches on like wildfire. One of they key factors of propagating Rabbits!" -- report on PenguiCon 3.0 by Lisa Padala | |
| "I played Fluxx for the first time last and night and just wanted to tell you all: ten thousand gold stars and more thumbs up than I have on my two hands! Bloody brilliant! Fluxx has replaced my weekly Cuban Uno game with my friends (we use illegal rules...don't ask.) Thanks a million!" - email "From One of Four of Your Newest Fans," named Donna | "A NOTE ON THE FLUXX: This is a great game, and we thought everyone should have a deck. It's made by Looney Labs, who cut us a generous deal and came all the way from Maryland to do the hunt. There's some downtime between the end of the hunt and the after-party -- it could be a great time to play Fluxx at a bar, cafe, etc. We hope you enjoy it. We do." -- from the instructions packet in MetroMetro's 3rd New York City scavenger hunt | "P.S. We had a blast in the park again today. Lots of people came and asked us about the pyramids and we even convinced a group of people to play with us. We made friends! It was great! And we weren't even demoing per se." -- David, on the Rabbit mailing list |
| "We work in a large room in a warehouse with no cubical walls. We set up a Volcano board on the corner of his desk and we started playing during the day. We keep one extra pyramid (from the set we use for caps) out to the side to indicate who's turn it is. We don't get in trouble for wasting time because we still get our work done only taking a few minutes at a time to contemplate a new move. (it can take a few days to get through a game) As you can imagine we have attracted a lot of interest. We now have two new players!!!" -- Joelle, on the Rabbit mailing list | "I stumbled across Zendo in my local game store, bought it, and loved the concept of Icehouse pieces. Nanofictionary ROCKS! The Empty City was also enjoyable... fun characters and good atmosphere. (I've lived in Washington D.C. before and it evoked memories of the Metro, the Smithsonian, and secret hang-out places all over town.)" -- comments with an order from Philippe of Colorado Springs | "I'd have to second all this, Fluxx is the game I play more than anything, its always in my pocket and it only takes a couple of minutes to teach a new player, Zendo has to be the best game a geek could ask for. Problem solving to the max. And then once you've got a set of Icehouse pieces there's a huge amount of fantastic games that you can play, my personal favourite is Volcano which has a chess like strategy to it." -- SilentDunk at Slashdot, in a discussion of "Fun Tabletop Games" |
| "Thank you for speaking out so publicly against marijuana prohibition. Thank you for making pot less 'scary.' Thank you all for putting your money (and your crazy business) where your hearts/politics are. I've played (and sold) your games for quite a while now, but when you became more and more vocal about pot legality I started to get a little uncomfortable. I was raised by alcoholic rage-filled parents, but it was 'drugs' I was afraid of, thanks to early-childhood anti-drug 'education.' I was terrified of pot, the people who used it, and the possibility that it might somehow sap my intelligence just to attend concerts where it was being smoked. I was well and truly paranoid about it... But... Andy's writing was eloquent and non-confrontational when Stoner Fluxx was released. By then I was a Mad Rabbit/Demo Bunny already and trying to keep an open mind. I thought a lot about smoking pot, and why I was so afraid of drugs. I started to calm down a little bit. Last year at GTS, I had the chance to meet you all... got some hugs (thank you Russell!), some flowers, and autographed promo cards. You weren't scary. Andy even remembered my name from the Early American Chrononauts beta-test! 'Stoners' ceased being scary. I started talking to people about marijuana prohibition (I live in Santa Cruz, it's a major topic bandied about town). After it was obvious that I had calmed down, several friends came out of the smoking closet. It turns out I knew a LOT of stoners, all of them cool people that had just been hiding that part of their life from me. They knew it would upset me, so they didn't push it on me at all. More proof that stoners aren't scary people!" -- email from Danielle Brown | ||
| "Wow this went great! Today I was at Gnome Games from 12:50 - 5pm demoing games. I taught 8 people how to play each of the following games: Aquarius, Fluxx, Zendo, Nanofictionary, Thin Ice, Martian Chess. We had a BLAST. There was this nice lady who was a teacher and she loved all of it. We also met some nice boys there too who wanted to learn. Everyone recieved a Happy Flower and some promo cards, and a smile. =) I saw a few people buy games on the spot and then after the demo, Pat Fuge pulled me aside and told me I should let you guys know that about $90 were spent today on Looney Labs merchandise. Three of my new friends bought games today! I'm not really sure how you guys tally that up but I hope it helps, everyone was quote 'going to make all of their friends learn it.' Wow this was fun!" -- Katie Bolssen's rabbit report on her demo at Gnome Games of Green Bay, WI | "Found Chrononauts at gaming store and loved it. Especially loved that it could be played with any number of players down to 1 and it still remained a fun and enjoyable game." -- Preston of Lafayette, IN | "If you're anything like us, you probably can't be bothered learning the rules to anything. The minute we get our mitts on a new plaything we just want to start playing. Modern living makes you impatient. And let's face it, rules are boring. Like the saying goes: 'Any fool can make a rule'. This is particularly true of card games. We're usually asleep by the time the explanation is over. Suggest a game that people are unfamiliar with and the normal response is a harrumph, followed by 'but I don't know how to play that one!' Maybe that's why Fluxx has drawn us so quickly and completely into its anarchic clutches. It's fast-paced, fun and totally unpredictable. It's also a game that has to be played to be appreciated - words can't do it justice. The simple, quirky and, above all, random nature of Fluxx make it incredibly playable, and it has that all-important one-more-go-factor in spades." -- review of Fluxx at Firebox.com |
| "Played Fluxx while deployed in Iraq. Hours of non-combat fun!" -- Kathryn of Honolulu, HI | ||
| "Long before there were websites and email, I encountered the Looneys and their highly original game ideas and loved their entrepreneurial free spirit, their inventiveness and energy. From the start, when they'd come over and help stuff their flyers into our catalogs for our annual mailings, we've had a nurturing fondness for these brilliant bohemians. We happily started selling some of their games ourselves and show them at our Maryland Renaissance Festival pavilion. I'm immensely proud of Andy and Kristin and their entire family/community and how far they've come as an enlightened game company, never losing the spirit of fun and humanity while striving towards business success with a unique product line....We love selling Fluxx and Chrononauts and the epistemologically splendid Nanofictionary. They are tributes to the amazing brains of Andy Looney and his artistic team." -- Kate Jones, founder of Kadon Enterprises, on her Rabbit page | "My first game convention was Origins 2004... As I initially walked around the exhibit halls, one room stood out. People in lab coats were milling around, and you could see these cool little (or even really big) pyramids everywhere. I didn't see much of the convention on Saturday, but I ended up making my way through the registration lines again on Sunday. Still I think about 75% of my time was spent hanging out in the Looney Lab or near the booth. I was hooked. I ended up buying the Stocked Game Bag just to see all the products. I keep stashes of pyramids in my bookbag for impromptu games or just to play with them. I'm still learning the games, but am willing to play what I know or figure the others out." -- Tonya Weaver's rabbit bio | "The pyramids of the Icehouse set are a great example of a well-designed game system. They can be physically configured in any number of ways: stacked on top of each other, aimed at each other like arrows, organized into patterns, or distributed randomly -- different Icehouse games take different advantage of these material affordances. The number of pieces and distribution among the three sizes and four colors also determines the formal relationships and logical groupings that can be expressed by the organization of pieces. The Icehouse Set components elegantly embody a flexible yet expressive set of potential formal and experiential relationships." -- Salen and Zimmerman, Rules of Play, page 547 |
Previous Testimonials: [2001] [2002] [2003] [2004]
See Also: the The current Testimonal of the Week page and the original "What our customers are saying..." page
