Matt Leacock

Matt Leacock
Matt Leacock at Lucca Comics & Games 2018
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

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 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

• 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)
• The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship (2025)

Charity

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

References

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. "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. 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.