Larry Harris Jr. is a

game designer Game design is the art of applying design and aesthetics to create a game for entertainment or for educational, exercise, or experimental purposes. Increasingly, elements and principles of game design are also applied to other interactions, in ...

Family

Harris is the son of Lawrence (Larry) Harris Sr., who was a U.S. infantryman in the

Pacific Theater The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

, participating in assaults in the

Solomon Islands Solomon Islands is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 900 smaller islands in Oceania, to the east of Papua New Guinea and north-west of Vanuatu. It has a land area of , and a population of approx. 700,000. Its capita ...

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu Hiri Motu, also known as Police Motu, Pidgin Motu, or just Hiri, is a language of Papua New Guinea, which is spoken in surrounding areas of Port Moresby (Capital of Papua New Guinea). It is a simplified version of ...

and the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

. He is married to Katherine Harris, has four children, and three step-children.

Career

Larry Harris is most famous for creating the

board game Board games are tabletop games that typically use . These pieces are moved or placed on a pre-marked board (playing surface) and often include elements of table, card, role-playing, and miniatures games as well. Many board games feature a comp ...

Axis & Allies ''Axis & Allies'' is a series of World War II strategy board games. The first version was initially published in 1981 and a second edition known colloquially as ''Axis & Allies: Classic'' was published in 1984. Played on a board depicting a Spri ...

'', as well as all of its sequels. During 1984, his first year at

Milton Bradley Milton Bradley (November 8, 1836 – May 30, 1911) was an American business magnate, game pioneer and publisher, credited by many with launching the board game industry, with his eponymous enterprise, which was purchased by Hasbro in 1984, and ...

, 13 games of his design were featured in the company's catalog. This included the three initial titles in the Gamemaster series: ''

Conquest of the Empire ''Conquest of the Empire'' is a military strategy board game set in the Roman Empire after the death of Marcus Aurelius, with 2 to 6 players pitting their armies against each other in an attempt to become the ruler of Rome. The game was originally ...

'', ''

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. It is the only game of that series to featur ...

'', and, ''

''. Other companies for which he has designed games include

Mattel Mattel, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational toy manufacturing and entertainment company founded in January 1945 and headquartered in El Segundo, California. The company has presence in 35 countries and territories and sells products in more ...

Coleco Coleco Industries, Inc. was an American company founded in 1932 by Maurice Greenberg as The Connecticut Leather Company. It was a successful toy company in the 1980s, mass-producing versions of Cabbage Patch Kids dolls and its video game console ...

Parker Brothers Parker Brothers (known by Parker outside of North America) was an American toy and game manufacturer which in 1991 became a brand of Hasbro. More than 1,800 games were published under the Parker Brothers name since 1883. Among its products wer ...

, Hasbro Games Group,

Hasbro Interactive Hasbro Interactive was an American video game developer, video game production and video game publisher, publishing subsidiary of Hasbro, the large game and toy company. Several of its studios were closed in early 2001 and most of its properties ...

, and Infogrames Interactive. His other significant games include ''LionHeart'' and more. He has also assisted in the further development of ''

Trivial Pursuit ''Trivial Pursuit'' is a board game in which winning is determined by a player's ability to answer trivia and popular culture questions. Players move their pieces around a board, the squares they land on determining the subject of a question t ...

'' and ''

Risk In simple terms, risk is the possibility of something bad happening. Risk involves uncertainty about the effects/implications of an activity with respect to something that humans value (such as health, well-being, wealth, property or the environme ...

''. Larry is also the inventor of '' Thin Ice''. Harris runs his own company, Harris Game Design. Four of his ''Axis & Allies'' games won

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 (for example) the 1979 aw ...

s, including the induction of the original game into the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & Design's Hall of Fame in 1996. Harris has lived extensively in Europe and three years in Iran. He speaks fluent French, is an Army veteran with five years' service, and has been known to pilot an ultralight.

References

External links

Personal web site
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Harris, Larry Board game designers Living people Year of birth missing (living people)