Comparison of cards from English and German versions.
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| Manufacturer(s) | DeLano Services (most) 360 Manufacturing (mass market) |
|---|---|
| Players | 2-6 |
| Age range | 8 and up |
| Playing time | 20 minutes on average, varying greatly |
| Random chance | High |
Fluxx is a card game, played with a specially designed deck published by Looney Labs. It is different from most other card games, in that the rules and the conditions for winning are altered throughout the game, via cards played by the players.
Fluxx was created by Andrew Looney on July 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 has resumed publication and distribution. By March 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 total of goal cards, based on its Origins 2000 5 Goal cards promo pack. Labs placed Fluxx Lite, a slimmed down 56 card deck to lower the price for discount superstore, in design by March 2002.
Amigo Games, a German game company, licensed and published a German language version of Fluxx in 2003. The in design Fluxx Reduxx was indefinitely place on hold as of July 14, 2005 to focus on EcoFluxx. Labs registered the Fluxx trademark. By October 2005, Stoner Fluxx had been released and EcoFluxx was in play testing, but scheduled to be released later that month followed by Family Fluxx.
In November 2006, Looney Labs issued a Spanish language edition. The October 10, 2007 release of Zombie themed version brought the first new card types, Creeper and Ungoal. A Toy Vault co-published Monthy Python Fluxx was released in 2008. Fluxx edition 4 was released in December 2008 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. On November 13, 2009, Labs launched its Full Baked Ideas imprint with a new edition of Stoner Fluxx and expectations for a drinking variant of Fluxx.
Two variants were re-released on March 5, 2010, Eco and Family, with Eco being a new edition. In February 2011, the Surprise type of cards are introduced in the Pirate Fluxx themed variant. In March 2011, the German language version 2nd edition was released by Pegasus Games. By May 2011 over 1 million decks of all Fluxx versions have been sold while Pirate Fluxx was getting into bookstores that month.
On August 1, 2012, Looney Labs get 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). Stoner Fluxx was placed back in print under the Full Baked Ideas imprint of Looney Labs on November 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.
Cartoon Network version was 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 game was available beginning in 2014 as the 4.0 edition run out with Looney Labs teaming up with The Doubleclicks for a Fluxx theme song. A new expansion, Fluxx Dice, and two licensed variants are scheduled to be released in the summer of 2015.
The first edition deck consists of 84 cards with four types of cards, Keepers, Goals, Actions, and New Rules. Starting with a simple draw a card then play a card, the game mutates when a New Rule card is played. They may change the number of cards drawn or played per turn or the number of cards in your hand or the Keepers played. The Goal cards change the Keepers need to win the game. Later sets some times included Creeper cards that block or make goals more difficult to obtain. Ungoal cards have conditions were the game ends with no one winning the game. 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 have other results when played on your 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 is reshuffled which was kept for future tournaments. On August 28, 2008 via their Wunderland blog, Looney introduced the "Meta Rule" type cards for players to self print as a method to incorporated 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.
Fluxx 3.1 cards look similar to earlier versions.Several expansions have been produced, including:
Zombie Fluxx cards in play, including New Rules (yellow) and Goals (pink).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).
| Publication date | August 2013 |
|---|---|
| Players | 2-4 |
| Age range | 8 & up |
| Playing time | 15 to 30 minutes |
The Flux: The Board Game' is a board game implementation of the card game released by August 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 effecting 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.
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.
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.
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."