University alumni created College Park-based tabletop game company
It’s all fun and games at Looney Labs.
University alumni Kristin and Andrew Looney founded the College Park-based tabletop game company in the late ’90s.
Looney games are known for their whimsical and unpredictable nature. The most popular game is Fluxx; the company has sold more than 1.5 million copies of the game and its variants, including Family Fluxx and EcoFluxx.
Looney Labs also hosts a variety of play-test events in the area to give people a chance to try out their games and provide feedback.
Dice game Cosmic Wimpout was a feature in both of the Looneys’ childhoods, and it inspired them to create their own games.
“We were both on the game’s mailing list a decade before knowing each other,” Andrew said. “And, mostly, it helped us realize that games are community driven in their nature and succeed through word of mouth.”
Though the couple attended this university at the same time, they didn’t meet until years later, when they both worked at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt. There, Andrew worked as a computer programmer and Kristin worked as an electronics engineer.
The couple is very supportive of the university and stays involved with the Gamer Symphony Orchestra. The Looneys still live in College Park and said they enjoy the atmosphere of a college town.
“There’s a certain intellectualism that develops around being in the shadow of a university,” Andrew said.
For the Looneys, the best part of creating games is their ability to bring people together.
“Our games bring people face-to-face to play together and have fun,” Kristin said. “That’s what we do — we manufacture fun.”
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