Matt Leacock

American board game designer

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Matt Leacock

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/

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]

## Early life

[edit]

Leacock grew up in Long Lake, Minnesota.[3] He studied visual communication at Northern Illinois University.[4]

## Career

[edit]

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 game, Daybreak is about climate change, and won The Best Board or Tabletop Game for Impact at the 2024 Games for Change Festival.[11]

## Games

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* 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)
* Ticket to Ride: Legends of the West (2023)
* Daybreak (2023)
* Forbidden Jungle (2023)
* Flickering Stars (2024)
* Ziggurat (2024)
* Ticket to Ride Legacy: Legends of the West (2024)
* The Problem with Purrballs (2024)

## Charity

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According to Leacock, 5% of his design royalty for Pandemic products is donated directly to Medecins Sans Frontieres.[7][12]

## References

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1. ^ "Games". Matt Leacock Games. Retrieved 2017-06-19.
2. ^ "Matt Leacock - Game Designer - Profile". About.com Home. Retrieved 2016-04-24.
3. ^ Yoo, Sharon (27 March 2020). "A board game called 'Pandemic' is big right now...because of course it is". Kare11. Retrieved 2020-09-08.
4. ^ 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.
5. ^ "Pandemic". BoardGameGeek. Retrieved 2020-09-08.
6. ^ "Matt Leacock and Pandemic Legacy". BBC. Retrieved 2020-09-08.
7. ^ a b "About". Matt Leacock Games. Retrieved 2020-09-08.
8. ^ Fitzpatrick, Alex (June 30, 2016). "This Board Game Designer Isn't Sorry About Taking a Big Risk". Time Magazine. Retrieved October 29, 2016.
9. ^ a b Duffy, Owen (January 16, 2016). "Pandemic Legacy review: Emotional highs and agonising lows". The Guardian. Retrieved September 29, 2016.
10. ^ Anderson, Nate (March 12, 2016). "Pandemic Legacy is the best board game ever—but is it "fun?"". Ars Technica. Retrieved October 1, 2016.
11. ^ Hall, Charlie (April 13, 2021). "Pandemic creator's new board game, Daybreak, is about climate change". Polygon. Retrieved April 16, 2021.
12. ^ Genovese, Peter (2020-04-03). "Pandemic —the board game — foreshadows current crisis". nj. Retrieved 2020-09-08.

Authority control databases

International|

* VIAF

National|

* United States
* Czech Republic
* Poland
* Israel

Other|

* IdRef

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