Fluxx

History

Fluxx was created by Andrew Looney on 000000001996-07-24-0000July 24, 1996 as the first game for his and his wife's part-time game design company, Looney Laboratory. The original print run was for 5,000 units and was released in 1997.

The game was successful and was licensed a year later to Iron Crown Enterprises (ICE) for wider distribution. ICE went bankrupt two years later and Looney Labs resumed publication and distribution. By 000000002001-03-01-0000March 2001, Labs was considering putting out another standalone deck version called Fluxx++ using card created by the Fluxx playing community with Fluxx Blanxx and Fluxx: Goals Galore, an expansion consisting of goal cards, based on its Origins 2000 5 Goal cards promo pack. Labs created Fluxx Lite, a slimmed down 56 card deck to lower the price for discount superstores, in design by 000000002002-03-01-0000March 2002.

In 2003, Amigo Games, a German game company, licensed and published a German language version of Fluxx. The in design Fluxx Reduxx was indefinitely placed on hold as of 000000002005-07-14-0000July 14, 2005 to focus on EcoFluxx. Looney Labs registered the Fluxx trademark. By 000000002005-10-01-0000October 2005, Stoner Fluxx had been released and EcoFluxx was in play testing, and scheduled to be released later that month followed by Family Fluxx.

In 000000002006-11-01-0000November 2006, Looney Labs issued a Spanish language edition of the game. The 000000002007-10-10-0000October 10, 2007 release of a zombie-themed version brought the first of a new card type, the Creeper and Ungoal. In 2008, Toy Vault and Looney Labs co-published and released Monty Python Fluxx. Fluxx edition 4 was released in 000000002008-12-01-0000December 2008 and was the first set to have the Meta Rule subtype card, which stemmed from a Fluxx Tournament rule.

In 2008, Zombie Fluxx won the Origins Award for Traditional Card Game of the Year. Stoner Fluxx was placed back in print under the Full Baked Ideas imprint of Looney Labs on 000000002009-11-13-0000November 13, 2009 after being out of print for four years. Full Baked was launched with expectation of a future release of a drinking variant and other mature subject versions.

Two variants were re-released on 000000002010-03-05-0000March 5, 2010, EcoFluxx and Family Fluxx, with Eco being a new edition. In 000000002011-02-01-0000February 2011, the Surprise subtype of cards were introduced in the Pirate Fluxx themed variant. In 000000002011-03-01-0000March 2011, the German language version 2nd edition was released by Pegasus Games. By 000000002011-05-01-0000May 2011 over 1 million decks of all Fluxx versions had been sold while Pirate Fluxx was getting into bookstores that month.

On 000000002012-08-01-0000August 1, 2012, Looney Labs got a simplified, less expensive general market version with redesigned packaging of Fluxx into Target stores. For the summer 2012, Fluxx was number 10 in ICv2's Top 10 Card/Building Games (hobby channel).

A Cartoon Network version of the game was made available as a Target exclusive from mid-August 2014 until Easter 2015, while in July the Regular Show Fluxx was released to the hobby market. The fifth edition of the regular Fluxx game was made available beginning in 2014 as the 4.0 edition ran out. Looney Labs teamed up with The Doubleclicks for a Fluxx theme song.

A new expansion of the game, Fluxx Dice, plus two new licensed variants were scheduled to be released in the summer of 2015. With a delay of the first variant to be released at the polled requested of the retailers, Looney Labs pushed back the dice and the other variant to stagger the releases to spread out the impact.

Game description and play

A game deck consists of 84 to 100 cards with four different card subtypes printed on them, New Rules, Keepers, Goals, and Actions. Starting with a simple Basic Rule of 'Draw 1 card / Play 1 card', players will draw then play a card to and from their hand. New Rule cards will change the rules of the game midstream, oftentimes changing the number of cards you draw, the number you play, the number of cards in your hand and so forth. Goals are cards that lay out the victory conditions for the game, consisting of two or more Keepers cards that must be in front of the player on the table while that Goal is active. The Keeper cards are various people and items that go along with the game's theme that the player must play to claim victory. Finally, Action cards are special actions a player can take that will affect the game status of themselves, one of their opponents, or the entire table. Over the course of the game, with each newly-played card the rules and goals of the game will change, and thus games can last from anywhere between 5 to 30 minutes.

Later sets sometimes included new card subtypes, depending on the theme of the set. Creeper cards are played like Keepers, except they block victory for a player or make their goals more difficult to obtain. Ungoal cards have conditions where the game can end with no one claiming victory. Surprise Cards, a 2011 addition, allow players to negate other types of cards which could stop a victory, and can be played at any time. These cards also have other results when played on a player's own turn.

The first Fluxx tournament at Origins 1997 had an extra rule calling for an increase in the Basic Rules each time the deck was reshuffled which was kept for future tournaments. On 000000002008-08-28-0000August 28, 2008 via their Wunderland blog, Looney introduced the "Meta Rule" type of cards for players to self print as a method to incorporate this within the standard decks and place in the primary deck Edition 4.0.

Early edition decks had 84 cards while newer standard decks have 100 cards, while Lite versions (Family, Spanish, SE) consist of 56 cards.

Editions

Languages

Expansions

Several expansions have been produced, including:

Variants

There are also versions of Fluxx that have been released using entirely different themed sets of cards while playing by the same set of rules.

Many of the version can be combined with each other to make a "mega Fluxx" deck (as all these versions have the same card back style).

Board game

Fluxx: The Board Game is a board game implementation of the card game released in 000000002013-08-01-0000August 2013. This game was awarded the Parents' Choice Recommended Seal Fall 2013 for Games.

The game moves the Keeper card items to spaces on the board while adding the "Leaper" card type. The board is separated into 9 movable tiles with four spaces each except for the start tile with the initial set up of 3x3 square. Besides the Keeper spaces there are 1 octagon space per title and two teleport spaces for the whole board. Moving on to one teleport space allows the player to move to the other teleport space. The octagon may hold any number of pawns while the keeper spaces can only have one with an incoming pawn pushing out the current pawn. There are two peg boards that track, the number of goals needed to win and current rules.

All start with a hand of three cards and a color card in face up to indicate the pawns they control. The each get to make a free rule change. New general rules affecting the tiles include rotation, moving and allowing wraparound tile movement. The game only has Action, Goals, New Rules and Leaper type cards. Action cards can change force a change in player color. A Leaper card counts as a card play but allows you to move a pawn to the item on the board. Goals cards are stacked near the board with top most card the current goal.

Promotional cards

Looney Labs gives away promotional cards related to Fluxx at conventions such as Gen Con and Origins. They have given away cards such as Composting and Jackpot, which later appeared in EcoFluxx and Family Fluxx respectively. They have also given away promo cards for Christmas to members of their online mailing list and in High Times magazine. Game Technicians (previously known as Mad Lab Rabbits), voluntary game demonstrators for Looney Labs, give away promo cards to people interested in the game.

Online

Fluxx was available to play for free via the volity network and was also available to be played online via the CCG Workshop, using the gatlingEngine to adjudicate most of its rules automatically. However, both Volity.net and CCG Workshop are no longer operating.

In December 2012, Fluxx was released by Playdek as an app on iOS operating systems (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Apple TV) by purchasing it from the Apple App Store. It uses the "mass market" deck developed for Target Stores, removing some of the more esoteric themes (such as Cthulhu) and complex rule cards.

Reception

The base game won the Mensa Select Game Award in 1999. Rick Loomis comments: "Fluxx makes a good game for a group that has one of those annoying 'I-must-win-every-game' types. The rest of you can enjoy yourselves as the game spins out of his control (as it surely will) and perhaps he'll eventually learn to lose gracefully. Meanwhile, Fluxx will be busily exercising everyone's logic synapses as you attempt to deal with the chaotic situations that occur because of the cheerful clash of rules."

An ICv2 review of the Batman variant by Nick Smith gave it 4 out of 5 stars as "The Fluxx series of games is not for everyone." But the game worked well with the Batman theme: "The game-themed victory conditions are good, and the thematic elements were very well thought out. This may be the best-designed Fluxx set in some time, and it can be a lot of fun for casual fans to try to achieve the thematic victory conditions."