…Should I put your logo somewhere to give you advertising/visibility? Should I mention Looney Labs Pyramids in the rulebook?

A: In answer to your questions, the answer is slightly different depending on whether you plan to sell or mass produce your creation. Please read this related question about mentioning our games or using our logos.

If you’re just putting up rules for a game using our pieces, feel free to mention that this is a game designed for use with the Looney Labs® Pyramid Gaming system (if it’s only designed for use with our pieces, you’ll probably need to say that anyhow, so that potential players can make sure they have the things they need to play). If there are components of your own invention specific to your game, feel free to share those graphics (game boards, cards, etc.)

If you are basing your game directly on one of our games (please don’t just directly steal our or anyone else’s game design outright, of course!) that is to say, if it’s derivative of one of our games, then yes, please mention Looney Labs®, the Looney Pyramids™, and say that the game is a derivative of [ZYXgame], designed by Andrew Looney.

If you are hoping to publish your game independent of the Looney Pyramid system, but want to make your pieces look exactly like ours, or want to include our pyramids in your product, NO, we do not give you permission to do that, and you would need to be sure that your derivative game was sufficiently different from the original game that it would count as its own creation.

This does not mean it’s not possible to use Looney Pyramids to design your own game for publication! Some fans have created products that were originally fan-created pyramids games. Penguin Soccer by Avri Klemer is one example that comes to mind – but his final product did not include the Looney Pyramids or our branding in any way, other than to give credit in stating that the game was “originally designed in 2007 as a part of the Looney Pyramids Gaming System.”