Matt Leacock
Matt Leacock is an American board game designer, most known for cooperative games such as Pandemic, Pandemic Legacy: Season 1, Forbidden Island and Forbidden Desert.[1][2]
Matt Leacock | |
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Matt Leacock at Lucca Comics & Games 2018 | |
Nationality | American |
Occupation | Game designer |
Notable work | Pandemic, Forbidden Island and Forbidden Desert |
Website | http://www.leacock.com/ |
Early life
Leacock grew up in Long Lake, Minnesota.[3] He studied visual communication at Northern Illinois University.[4]
Career
Matt designed Pandemic, published in 2008 by Z-Man Games.[5] Leacock had previously worked as a developer of social media[6] and as a user experience designer, primarily in community and communications products[7] for AOL and Yahoo.[8] He switched to designing board games full time in July 2014.
Pandemic Legacy: Season 1, which Leacock co-designed with Rob Daviau, has been rated very highly among board gamers and by the website Board Game Geek on its board game rankings.[9][10] His latest games are Pandemic Fall of Rome and Forbidden Sky (both released in 2018).
Games
- Pandemic (2008)
- Roll Through the Ages: The Bronze Age (2008)
- Pandemic: On the Brink (Expansion) (2009)
- Forbidden Island (2010)
- Forbidden Desert (2013)
- Pandemic: In The Lab (Expansion) (2013)
- Pandemic: The Cure (2014)
- Pandemic: State of Emergency (Expansion) (2015)
- Pandemic Legacy: Season 1 (2015)[9]
- Thunderbirds (2015)
- Knit Wit (2016)
- Pandemic: Reign of Cthulhu (2016)
- Pandemic Iberia (2016)
- Chariot Race (2016)
- Space Escape (formerly Mole Rats in Space) (2017)
- Pandemic: Rising Tide (2017)
- Pandemic Legacy: Season 2 (2017)
- Pandemic Fall of Rome (2018)
- Forbidden Sky (2018)
- Era: Medieval Age (2019)
- Pandemic Legacy: Season 0 (2020)
Charity
According to Leacock, 5% of his design royalty for Pandemic products is donated directly to Medecins Sans Frontieres.[7][11]
References
- "Games". Matt Leacock Games. Retrieved 2017-06-19.
- "Matt Leacock - Game Designer - Profile". About.com Home. Retrieved 2016-04-24.
- Yoo, Sharon (27 March 2020). "A board game called 'Pandemic' is big right now...because of course it is". Kare11. Retrieved 2020-09-08.
- Borrelli, Christopher (5 March 2020). "Q&A with the Chicago creator of Pandemic, the board game that has become all too real". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2020-09-08.
- "Pandemic". BoardGameGeek. Retrieved 2020-09-08.
- "Matt Leacock and Pandemic Legacy". BBC. Retrieved 2020-09-08.
- "About". Matt Leacock Games. Retrieved 2020-09-08.
- Fitzpatrick, Alex (June 30, 2016). "This Board Game Designer Isn't Sorry About Taking a Big Risk". Time Magazine. Retrieved October 29, 2016.
- Duffy, Owen (January 16, 2016). "Pandemic Legacy review: Emotional highs and agonising lows". The Guardian. Retrieved September 29, 2016.
- Anderson, Nate (March 12, 2016). "Pandemic Legacy is the best board game ever—but is it "fun?"". Ars Technica. Retrieved October 1, 2016.
- Genovese, Peter (2020-04-03). "Pandemic —the board game — foreshadows current crisis". nj. Retrieved 2020-09-08.