the groundhog day project

The board game is finished… barring some weird detail I might have missed. (For example, the Trading In option is something we—my kids and me—have not playtested yet, so it might be removed. At one point in the developing the way the game played, different types of cards had different point values, and this is a remnant of that idea.) Here what’s in the rule booklet: You are Phil Connors, weatherman. You are trapped in Punxsutawney, PA and every day is Groundhog Day. To escape from the time loop and the small town, you have to become a better person. You do this by collecting particular cards, representing your experiences and your growth. Contents: 1 Rule Booklet 1 Board 1 Spinner 98 Cards 18 PIANO LESSON (brown) 18 EXPERIENCE (purple) 14 SEDUCTION (red) 14 SUICIDE (blue) 14 INSURANCE (yellow) 10 REPORT (green) 10 SAVIOR (orange) Setup: Setup for this game is simple. Unfold the board. Since every turn begins at the same location—the Cherry Street Inn marked with a blue...

Once again, few words, for I was working on this today: That’s the basic arrangement of buildings. They aren’t attached yet. Streets colored in, working on some grass. And, here is some of the mess on the table, including those buildings again. Today’s reason to repeat a day forever: to boil whatever town I am in for the long haul of the time loop down to a few representative buildings then reduce them onto a board game. And, when I get frustrated with the time loop or the town, I will just burn the board game or rip it into pieces or… except then I would have to make the board game all over again just to destroy it. Seems like too much work.

There will be few words typed today, because today I spent a good portion of my day writing some… other stuff related to Groundhog Day . That is, the cards for Groundhog Day: The Board Game are pretty much done—playtested a cards-only version with the kids, didn’t like it, sketched a version of the board design and playtested that as well. The cards weren’t labeled well at that point, just their categories… You can see some cards that didn’t survive the playtesting in those shots—DISCARD, GIVE CARD, FORECAST and an I’M A GOD card that was a great idea that just doesn’t work in a game with categorized cards. And, that big white board in the upper right of those last couple shots—that will soon be the board for the game. I have the design, I just have to… draw it, I guess, on the board. (My copy of All You Need Is Kill , the novel on which Edge of Tomorrow is based, can also be seen in those last two shots. Only got it yesterday, haven’t had time but to glance through it.) ...