Larry Harris (game designer)
Encyclopedia
Larry Harris, Jr., is a game designer most famous for creating the board game
Axis & Allies, as well as all of its sequels. His other significant games include Conquest of the Empire
, Broadsides and Boarding Parties
, LionHeart and more. He has also assisted in the further development of Trivial Pursuit
and Risk
. Larry is also the inventor of Thin Ice
.
Four of his Axis & Allies games won Origins Award
s, including the induction of the original game into the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & Design's Hall of Fame
in 1996.
He is the son of Lawrence (Larry) Harris, Sr., who was a U.S. infantryman in the Pacific Theatre
, participating in assaults in the Solomon Islands
, New Guinea
and the Philippines
.
Board game
A board game is a game which involves counters or pieces being moved on a pre-marked surface or "board", according to a set of rules. Games may be based on pure strategy, chance or a mixture of the two, and usually have a goal which a player aims to achieve...
Axis & Allies, as well as all of its sequels. His other significant games include Conquest of the Empire
Conquest of the Empire
Conquest of the Empire is a board game created in 1984 by Milton Bradley and re-released in the summer of 2005 by Eagle Games, designed by Glenn Drover. Part of the Gamemaster series, Conquest of the Empire is very similar to the popular Axis & Allies of the same series. That may be because it was...
, Broadsides and Boarding Parties
Broadsides and Boarding Parties
Broadsides and Boarding Parties is a board game published by Milton Bradley in 1984 as part of their Gamemaster series. It was the 3rd in the series of games that are all designed by Larry Harris...
, LionHeart and more. He has also assisted in the further development of Trivial Pursuit
Trivial Pursuit
Trivial Pursuit is a board game in which progress is determined by a player's ability to answer general knowledge and popular culture questions. The game was created in 1979 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, by Canadian Chris Haney, a photo editor for Montreal's The Gazette and Scott Abbott, a sports...
and Risk
Risk (game)
Risk is a strategic board game, produced by Parker Brothers . It was invented by French film director Albert Lamorisse and originally released in 1957 as La Conquête du Monde in France. Risk is a turn-based game for two to six players...
. Larry is also the inventor of Thin Ice
Thin Ice (game)
Thin Ice is a board game that was produced in 1992 by the Pressman Toy Corporation. The game features a lower ring with marbles and an upper ring, where a wet tissue is placed to emulate thin ice. The object of the game is to place as many marbles as possible on the tissue with a pair of big white...
.
Four of his Axis & Allies games won Origins Award
Origins Award
The Origins Awards are American awards for outstanding work in the game industry. They are presented by the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design at the Origins Game Fair on an annual basis for the previous year, so the 1979 awards were given at the 1980 Origins.The Origins Award is commonly...
s, including the induction of the original game into the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & Design's Hall of Fame
Origins Award
The Origins Awards are American awards for outstanding work in the game industry. They are presented by the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design at the Origins Game Fair on an annual basis for the previous year, so the 1979 awards were given at the 1980 Origins.The Origins Award is commonly...
in 1996.
He is the son of Lawrence (Larry) Harris, Sr., who was a U.S. infantryman in the Pacific Theatre
Pacific War
The Pacific War, also sometimes called the Asia-Pacific War refers broadly to the parts of World War II that took place in the Pacific Ocean, its islands, and in East Asia, then called the Far East...
, participating in assaults in the Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands is a sovereign state in Oceania, east of Papua New Guinea, consisting of nearly one thousand islands. It covers a land mass of . The capital, Honiara, is located on the island of Guadalcanal...
, New Guinea
New Guinea
New Guinea is the world's second largest island, after Greenland, covering a land area of 786,000 km2. Located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, it lies geographically to the east of the Malay Archipelago, with which it is sometimes included as part of a greater Indo-Australian Archipelago...
and the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
.