           2006
Testimonials of the Week |
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| "Family Fluxx has been flying off the shelves... and the family loves playing it too! The grandkids put down their Gameboys - for an entire weekend!" -- Herrick at Riverwood (one of our retailers, in upstate NY) | "I really can't wait for the final version of Just Desserts to come out -- everyone we play it with loves it. Thus this Yule, I am giving the beta version for Christmas. And I have 2 special families in mind for the Jewish and Christian Fluxx sets - this is a nice way to have customized games for many families out there. Thanks!" -- comments with an order from Cecelia T of Lakewood, CO | "We love FLUXX! My mom has always played lots of games, a gift that I pass on to the FUTURE GAMERS now that I am 25. Our friend, Isaac, is 11 and a veritable Fluxx master, not that you can ever totally master the fluxuations! Most recently, we have enjoyed even more deliciously fluxatious Fluxx with our friends Erin and Chad, so much fun with more than four players! Erin has been ordering up the special cards (part of my Christmas gift this year ~ new cards that our five year old deck with battered box has never seen!). I played Fluxx on the Caribbean island of Grenada...and on top of a massive fallen redwood tree at a wedding! From an extended family of Fluxx players numbering near 30, Thanks for Creating Fluxx!" -- Katie C of Arcata, CA |
| "My Fiancée has Fluxx 2.1 and he would like the upgrade for Christmas. The game is a blast. It even helped him form a geeky game bond with my dad!" -- Comments with an order from Gillian V of Centreville, VA | ||
| "I have been taking some LL games with me to the boys' school classes. They have one class on Monday and one on Thursday. I end up playing a lot of Treehouse with the kids in the Study Hall. Usually they are around 5-7th grade. Today a little girl played. She is about 4. She usually just has fun stacking the pyramids on her own. But she played Treehouse today. She lucked in rolling the ones she understood -- HOP, TIP and SWAP usually. Being so young, none of the other players paid any attention to her. She won. She was SO THRILLED to beat all the big kids. Just thought I'd share." -- Kimberly Terrill, posting to the Rabbit list, 11/9/6 | ||
| "Martian Coasters look FABULOUS - I am so excited about this product!!! I'd had some mock-up versions to take to trade shows, but the real product just ROCKS! I love the way the game boards can move around - it's a great combo of strategy and luck." -- Carol, posting on the Rabbit mailing list this week | "Now this is a game I can totally get behind! It's educational, it's fun, and it's environmentally friendly! How can you go wrong with that? It's a wonderful educational tool for young children who are beginning to learn about ecology and nature. The game, rated for ages "8-108" per the package, is certainly not limited to children. The ever-changing rules and limitless possibilities cater to both the chaosian and the strategist alike, keeping players of all ages entertained for hours. One game can last only a matter of minutes, or up to an hour. It all depends on the luck of the draw. With each game being different, it's difficult to get bored." -- review of EcoFluxx at Green Room Magazine | "One of the teachers, after hearing a bit about the Icehouse system, decided she wanted to run a game design class in her classroom using Icehouse pieces. The idea was very well received by the rest of the people at our table, and generated more than a bit of buzz. I could have sold twice as much Treehouse as I was sent, after that." -- Trey Reilly, from her NAGC event repor |
| "We have been demoing Treehouse in our store. It's great because it only takes about five minutes to demo and sales off of that five minute demo are quite good. The biggest problem is that our distributors are running out of Treehouse and the Playing with Pyramids book." -- Diana Outwater, The Game Habitat | "You guys have a lethal demo team - I was just walking by when *wham* I got sucked into a game and I couldn't leave because your games are so much FUN to play! And even though I work around games all day, I never get to play. You guys are fantastic!!" -- JD at Lion Rampant, re those who went to their Game Day earlier this year, as reported from a conversation with Carol | "If you want to teach students to be flexible, adaptable, information literate people, I can think of few games more suited to that task than Fluxx. Why? Well, Fluxx is a pretty simple game. There is only one rule, you see, you draw one card and then you play one card. That's it. How do you win? I don't know...nobody has played a card that allows someone to win. We will have to wait and see what develops. Understanding and applying rules to master a situation, really the heart of gaming, also happens to be a critical skill in information literacy. What is Internet searching but trying multiple paths and working through ever-shifting information tracks? Game play for Fluxx varies greatly depending on the cards, but an average game length is probably about 15 minutes. There is also a new science based version of Eco-Fluxx." -- review of Fluxx at the official web log of the American Association of School Librarians |
| "Treehouse is one of the best games I have played. Why is that? It's fast, easy, and small. Whenever I go to a family function, you can guarentee that Treehouse is in my pocket. My son and I will play it while sitting around a table with other family members. Since the game is so simple, you can carry on a conversation with others while playing the game. It sure makes those functions go by faster." -- Troy Davidson's comment on a BGG thread called "The ever changing Treehouse of Icehouse" | "A day later, I snuck back to Looney Labs to get Andy's autograph on a couple of games. He was happy to do it but insisted I take an additional card for my own copy of Fluxx. He then pulled out a Keeper card with a caricature of himself on it. It read: "Keeper: Andy Looney -- Not valid without Andy's signature." He signed the card and said 'Thanks for playing my games.' No, no, no. Thank you, Andy, for making them." -- S. Matt Read, "Family Fluxx a great, goofy card game for all ages", published in the July 21st issue of the Missoulian | |
| "Treehouse proved to be a great portable game - 9 Icehouse pieces, a small d6, a printout of the rules, all stuffed into a small dice bag, it sat happily in the lid of my rucksack with no perceptible increase in the load. The game proved popular with Sue, who feels less intimidated by games with a reasonable quota of luck, and we played on four separate evenings, sitting in pubs or hostels after a long day tramping St Cuthbert's Way. Treehouse (like most of Andy Looney's games) has no strategic planning, but it has nice little tactical puzzles along the way, and each round only takes a few minutes to complete. Best of all it cost me nothing (except a little ink to print out the rules) since I already own Zendo." -- Nimrod's blog entry, "Andy Looney's perfect travelling companion" | "Aquarius is possibly the most international card game ever. Nearly everyone I've broken it out for has liked it, and I'm always trying to hook more people on it. My host family in Sukhbaatar all really loved it, and so do my new co workers. With my family back in Sukhbaatar, I even cut out little strips of paper, and translated the few English words there are into Mongolian, and now everybody can play really easily once I explain the rules -- as best I can in my limited Mongolian, mostly with miming. It made me think that it would be really awesome if the Looney Labs could write the English text and rules in other languages, so that if they get a hold of the deck, they can look it up on the internet and be able to play right away. In fact, I think I'm going to look into getting packs of Aquarius to give away to people here -- my parents are sending regular packages, you know. I don't have the pack with me right now, so I can remember the Mongolian text, but I'll write for you later. I've also got some cool pics of Mongolians playing Aquarius, even a tough herder guy in a traditional outfit from last weekend! Anyways I just wanted to convey that, and to make sure everyone knew that even Mongolians love Aquarius." -- Ian Hartman, of the Peace Corps, emailing from Mandalgovi, Mongolia | |
| "One of the nights there was 'game night' and a few people had brought Fluxx with them. It was my first time to play and it was a BLAST! We played with your 'Holy Fluxx' Jewish expansion. It is great! Immediately after getting back to school, I ordered the Fluxx 3.1 version and I looked for the Jewish expansion and saw that it has not yet been released. I did, however, find the letter from Andy explaining the idea. I also noticed the photo of Jennelle, who happened to have been staying in the same cabin that I was on that weekend! I just wanted to give you some feedback. I absolutely love your game and have introduced it to all my friends and we play all the time, at parties and just hanging out around the dorm. I can't wait for the Jewish expansion cards to be sold online! Thank you!" -- email from Hayley M | "We bought a box of Fluxx years ago at the check-out line in Borders and are now on our fourth deck--the cards get torn, stained, and occasionally blow off in a stiff wind, so we must buy a new deck at least once a year. We give Fluxx to clients as Xmas gifts and stuff and have hooked several people on the game." -- Kathleen of Clayton, NC | |
| "Looney Labs is probably the most creative and interesting game making franchise in the world (okay, so I don't really know enough about game making franchises to say that with any certainty, but bear with me). Don't be scared off by the games without boards. I know the card games have a tendency to remind us of the overly simple 'Uno' or of the overly geeky 'Magic: The gathering,' but I assure you there is a middle ground. Fluxx, for example, is a very clever game..." -- Lev AC Rosen, "Your Boy Friday: Games" | "My most interesting discovery has been around forever, I've just always avoided it. Self-described hippie game company Looney Labs has produced a set of game pieces called Icehouse for 20 years. They're just little stackable plastic pyramids in different colors. I've seen them forever taking up little back-wall booths at conventions, inevitably staffed by freaky looking hippies in lab coats. I never once felt the urge to go talk to them. The games being played with these little pyramids always seemed so abstract and complex as to not be fun, and frankly, the whole thing reeked of 'hey I made this in my basement.' This year, however, they changed how they marketed the game. They boiled down the product into a single, 9 dollar stack of pyramids and one very simple game (Treehouse). It's extremely easy to teach and demos wonderfully. I actually stopped to play this year, and half an hour later, after a great series of demos and some intelligent conversation with Kristin Looney, I bought one of every single thing they had on offer. 6 tubes of different colored pyramids, some special dice, some cards, a 5x5 handmade plastic board, and a book of a dozen really, really good games you can play with it all. I encourage anyone with even a passing interest in games to at least spend 20 minutes on their website." -- Julian Murdoch, in his Gen Con Wrapup at GamersWithJobs.com | |
| "I was introduced to the game while camping with friends. We'd all gone to breakfast at a restaurant and had to wait almost an hour and a half for our food. To pass the time, my friend took out his Fluxx deck. I think we were actually disappointed when the food finally came and we had to stop playing." -- comments with a Fluxx order from James R of Portland, OR | "Treehouse is mind-bogglingly easy to both learn and play, and easy to expand upon. To start with, the publisher makes rules for another three little games available on its website that can be played with the one Treehouse tube. With three Treehouse sets of one type, and the 3HOUSE rules booklet, it is possible to play what are considered to be the best classic games of the Icehouse system -- IceTowers, Martian Chess, and Binary Homeworlds. Five Treehouse sets are enough to play every Icehouse game! Another beer 'n' pretzels game, Treehouse is very pocket friendly, both in terms of packaging and pricing, making it the perfect entry into the Icehouse system." --Matthew Pook's review of Treehouse in this week's issue of Pyramid magazine | "Across the entire weekend I managed to give out 44 Fruit Tree cards, and about a half-dozen each of Palm and Pine. Perhaps I played 200 games of Treehouse? One mark of an excellent game is being able to play something like 200 games across 4 days and not end up having a violent aversion to ever playing that game again. In fact, I'd not been planning to attend GenCon but I had SO much fun at Origins that I'm trying to work out my schedule to go to Indy next month!" -- Diane Sudduth's Origins Rabbit Report |
| "My older sister met the creators somewhere and brought the game when she came to visit, I left my copy home in Michigan when I joined the Army but there was a game store in the mall for Christmas and they happened to have Fluxx, now all my friends want copies and every time I go into any store that sells any type of game I ask if they have Fluxx and since they all say no, I tell them they need to look into it." -- Troy P. of Fort Richardson, AK | "I want to give a testimonial about NanoFictionary. I do mental health work with disadvantaged children and teens, and have found this game to be an excellent therapeutic tool. It gives my clients a chance to use the elements of storytelling for a bit of projection, and the game is very flexible, allowing me to give such instructions as 'let's make up stories where somebody is feeling disappointed,' etc. Actually, the set I am ordering right now is for the teens at the Unitarian church I attend. I have been using the game to get them to tell stories about principled and un-principled behavior. They enjoy using the game because of the humor and playfulness of the cards, and it ends up making a good forum for discussion. I have also used Fluxx therapeutically, to work with kids who are not very flexible, and get them to think about social situations where rules and goals are often changing. Thanks for creating such wonderful games. They have been fun to play in my personal life, as well as an important resource in my professional work! You should consider developing more games that can be used therapeutically. There are a few companies that do it, but they are often lacking in cleverness and whimsy, which make them far less appealing to kids (and therapists!)" -- Bela S. of Rutland, VT | |
| "To The Entire Crew of Looney Labs: I just picked a pair of Treehouse packs (Xeno and Rainbow) and I wanted to thank you considerably for so significantly altering the way that you market your Icehouse games. I have been a fan of Looney Labs [for a long time but] I was never really able to 'get into' Icehouse as a game system because of, unsurprisingly, some of the issues that were pointed out in the webzine linked to the Treehouse web page ('Redesigning Icehouse'). Seeing the little tubes of pyramids (and the colors therein), however, piqued my interest enough to pick up the only two tubes the store had on hand... In picking up the sets of pyramids, I have regained my immense appreciation for games with simplicity and depth. Presently, I have plans to pick up four more tubes of each spectrum, PWP, 3HOUSE, the Volcano caps, and both Volcano boards.... There is something strangely hypnotic and serene about the pieces that I can't seem to put my finger on, but I know that I like it." -- email from Sean C. of Burbank, CA | "The group just loved the Aquarius Demo and so we scheduled a Fluxx demo this week. They all came back and a few new people who wanted to learn about this game. I brought along my deck with some of my custom cards in it and they loved the idea of this game. it was also cool when people walked up and I just dealt them in. They never saw a game like it. I had been selling this game a lot but when this group saw the possibilities they just went crazy and some bought all the versions the store carried and asked when we could play again." -- ToteMan's Rabbit Report from demo in April at All Things Fun! | |
| "We ordered our first copies of Treehouse, shortly after returning from GAMA. We have a demo copy of the game on our front table, and customers from ages 10 and up have been challenging each other... over and over again. The game is so deceptively simple to learn, but can escalate into surprisingly strategic competition. Players love that Treehouse fits easily back into its container, and can be carried in a pocket!" -- Vicki LK Schneider of Infinite Quests | "Pat was AMAZED at how organized we were and how wonderful the jpegs of our products looked. She says that no other manufacturer has been so helpful and ready to share like that - and so organized to get the info she requested to her so quickly. She wanted that passed on to whoever was responsible - she's VERY excited about working with us!" -- Carol's notes in our system on a sales call | "I first played one of the early versions of Fluxx back in college around '97/'98. I didn't know you guys had made it until around 2003; On a whim, I bought a deck of Chrononauts in a WotC shop while I was stuck in a day-long airport layover with a friend. Chrononauts SAVED our sanity, and later I looked up your website, only to discover that you had also made Fluxx! Thanks, guys!" -- James S of Hamilton, OH |
| "Contracted Fluxx-itis several years ago on a camping trip with some friends. It lay dormant until this past summer, when I had a flare-up and bought it in my local game shop. I immediately infected my girlfriend, then went on to spread the bug to my friends in my graduate program. Now several of them own their own decks and have been likewise infecting others -- including parents, co-workers, and just about anybody who will stop long enough for us to get our Fluxx germs on them." -- Jordan W of Berkeley, CA | "Dear Looney Labs: I manage a bar. One of my employees recently started playing your game Fluxx, and she decided to share it with all of my other employees. Now I have trouble getting everyone to do their job, because they are too occupied with playing. I have come to the conclusion that Fluxx is entirely too fun. I would appreciate it if you would make an edition of your game for "at work" that is 1/2-1/4 as much fun, so it doesn't detract from business. I also have a question: How do you folks ever get anything done with Fluxx being right there all the time? ...I just wanted to say thank you for a great game. I appreciate that all my random slow times (waiting for the bus, waiting for customers to show up, taking a break, etc) are now filled with a cool little game. Keep up the fun!" -- Email from Erich H of Champaign, IL | "The copy of Treehouse that we received at GTS was a huge hit. My wife demo'd it to me the day after she got back and we had three people IN LINE to try a demo before we finished our first game. I love the game, it's colorful, eye-catching, easy to play and demo and inexpensive. We sold through our initial order within days of getting it on the counter." -- Steve and Janenne, Rules of Engagement Games |
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"A friend brought in a Fluxx deck to school and my life has never been the same..." -- Martha K of Columbus, OH "I went to a friends house, and they had a set. absolutely loved it, and bought Fluxx 3.1 the same day. I play it just about every day in the Cafeteria, and it never gets old. Now I'm getting Blanxx to make it extra fun!" -- comments from Sean T. of Colorado Springs, CO |
"I discovered Fluxx on Amazon and thought we'd give it a whirl. We've not stopped playing since except for meals (haha). I have told EVERYONE I meet about it. My children are addicted and we now have ALL the Fluxx versions and are delving into Aquarians next. We forced all our guests to 'try' a Fluxx game and have converted just about everyone. We will continue our missionary work wherever we go as we are now never without a pack when we are all together, even on picnics and outings. JUST KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK LOONEY LABS" -- Willow Griffiths-Scott's Rabbit Bio | "My best Friend bought Fluxx from a game store at our local mall. At first we were so confused and wanted to return it. But 3 hours later we were laughing like crazy and wanting to never stop playing!" -- comments with an order from Amanda R. |
| "The other game I tried recently is Treehouse. I wasn't too sure what to expect when I started the game, but I like what I found. Treehouse is quick, fun and (most importantly) let me and my friend have a conversation while the game is going on. Sometimes you want a game that takes all of your attention (Icehouse, anyone?). But sometimes you want a game that lets you just shoot the breeze with whoever you're playing with, while still being fun and worth playing. That's the mark of a good party game to me. Treehouse does it perfectly. Thanks." -- Email from A.J. Bobo | "I also want to say that I think your ideas for selling Treehouse are inspired. I've been in many stores that carry Fluxx, but only one that I remember that carried Icehouse pieces. How I'd love to see those little pyramids for sale in more stores.... Wonderful day. Anyway, I just need to say thanks for all the great games you've been providing me with over the years. Keep it up. You keep making good games, I'll keep playing them." -- Email from A.J. Bobo | "Treehouse was a popular quickie. In my opinion, it's probably the best Icehouse game for kids I've seen and us big kids enjoy it, too. It's simple pattern-matching and it's straight-forward enough to learn without fuss." -- Rabbit report from Nimrod Jones |
| "I'm fanatical about Icehouse games and Fluxx... in fact, I can't remember the last time I introduced someone to Zendo or IceTowers and they weren't scrambling for their own stashes to show their friends. I believe Looney Labs really has something going with the word of mouth campaign. I'm on board, and hope to see more and more converted pyramid-geeks showing up in the Atlanta area... until pyramids blot out the sun... bwahahahaha!!!! I've been a gamer for 15 years, and prefer abstract strategy games. Looney Labs has a great lineup of gateway games to convert the non-gamer, so I usually have a few stashes of pyramids and a Fluxx set in my backpack at all times." -- Aaron Coover's rabbit bio | "ps: To date I have personally gotten over 37 people mercilessly hooked on your games." -- email from nikin | |
| "Sometimes the game lasts only a couple of minutes; sometimes it takes half an hour. It's fun the whole time. The only danger is that because games are so fast-moving and take so little time, you'll keeps saying, 'Let's start another one.' Not so good on school nights, as we discovered." -- famous sci-fi author Orson Scott Card reviewing Family Fluxx |
"BTW: I was thinking about how I 'feel' while I'm playing Fluxx. I started realizing I feel better in certain circumstances (Not necessarily my favorite cards.) These circumstances have little to do with winning (In fact, I seem to get more satisfaction from certain cards being in play than from actually winning the game {unless it's a really cool win.}) I don't know if you all have any interest in such things, but here's my list:
Thanks again for making such incredibly cool games." -- email from Dayle |
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| "Whilst at Gen-Con, someone I did not know came up to me (I repeat, I swear this is true) and said "I'll buy you that game" pointing at FLUXX. I was taken aback at this offer from a stranger, but being a Scot at heart, I wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. He went on, "and if you don't like it, I'll give YOU, MY money back!" And so he bought it for me, adding before he departed, "I just wanted to do that to somebody - to introduce them to that wonderful game". And do you know something? Since then I have done the same thing TWICE to complete strangers. It's a wonderful feeling to do something as unpredictably generous as that." -- Drew @ Spiritual Weightlifting | "Then inspiration struck. Forget supplementing other presents with plush posable flowers, we had a bouquet for our little darling. Well, that bouquet of flowers was the first gift she opened, and the one she carried with her all day. She kissed them, she cuddled them, she showed them to everyone. We played guessing games where we hid one flower and she had to guess what colour was missing. They were in her hand when she dozed off in the car, and in her hand when she sleepily toddled into her auntie's home at eleven o'clock that night. They were the gift that the other kids wanted to look at and play with, and the gift that she guarded most fiercely even overcoming her reticence to speak to one of her stepcousins (she'd never met any of them before) to ask for her flower back. So thank you to everyone at Looney Labs. You saved Christmas." -- blog entry by Melissa | "Your games are certainly games of the underground gaming movement. Fluxx is one of those games you can start a conversation with. Most people I spend any real time with, own themselves a Fluxx deck, and I carry mine with me whenever I go out to meet people. I don't always get a chance to break it out, but when I do it impresses!" -- email from Ax Death, Test Rabbit |
Previous Testimonials: [2001] [2002] [2003] [2004] [2005]
See Also: the The current Testimonal of the Week page and the original "What our customers are saying..." page
