My SUPER SECRET Celebration project REVEALED!!
by Bill Cable
on 2017-04-26, 07:50:05
I was a busy artist ahead of Celebration Orlando 2017. Five patches. One Droids-style cardback. One logo. One T-shirt. And then the one project I couldn't tell anybody about until it was revealed Sunday morning at Celebration... the gift for the Collecting Track panelists, sponsors and volunteers.
A bit of history... it all started with my assumption that I'd be doing backdrops similar to the ones I did for Celebration Anaheim 2015. I bounced a couple ideas off Chris G, who's in charge of the gifts, and we decided on Jabba's Palace and the Emperor's Throne Room. And then I had a flash of inspiration - instead of a plain floor for Jabba's, why not lay it out like a game board? Added value for little cost. Chris Liked it. And it just exploded from there. My initial thought was to print stickers and affix them to a fold-out checker boards, but after a little research we figured out that a custom-printed game board was a financially viable option.
I'm going to talk about the evolution of the game next week, because it's actually quite interesting. Today I'm going to reveal the final product! Via everyone's favorite method - UNBOXING!
Presenting: Star Tots ADVENTURE ON TATOOINE GAME
Here's the box - designed by Jeff Correll. He took a great photo of the game board and some of the original graphic elements, and utilizing his superior graphic design skills put together a very professional package. Note - we spent like 2.5 hours in Orlando applying these big-ass stickers to the tops of a hundred of these boxes.

Inside the box we discover the game board, a die, Star Tots stands and instructions. I designed the gameplay myself and wrote the instructions (which Chris edited). Then Jeff laid them out real nice so they look authentic.


The stands are included so your Star Tots from Celebration Orlando can be your game pieces! I thought that was a great innovation - the first truly interactive use of Tots!

And finally, we have the game board. And this thing is awesome. 18" x 18" of beautiful, original Star Wars art! Every pixel (except the Celebration logo) created by yours truly!

ADVENTURE ON TATOOINE takes you on a treacherous, brutal journey across inhospitable lands. It's designed so you die. A lot. Like - almost always. I designed it with two victory scenarios:
#1 - you reach the finish
#2 - all your opponents die so many times that you're the only one with any Tots left standing.
My buddy Skye played the game with his two kids six times when he returned from Orlando. In all those tries, only one character reached the finish. Three players times four game pieces times six playthroughs - that's a 1-in-72 completion success rate. That's almost sadistic. Thankfully, the game is reported to be a ton of fun to play even if you achieve victory through survival.
I put considerable effort into writing out the death scenarios to match scenes and situations from Return of the Jedi, and I'm particularly proud of what I came up with. So if you'll indulge me, I'd like to share some photos of each of the game's quadrants so you can read and enjoy them.
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I put countless hours into this project. And as I was toiling, I almost became depressed. I mean, doing these things is an awesome opportunity for which I couldn't be more appreciative. But when I was working on the details on the Millennium Falcon, it hit me kinda hard that probably nobody would ever appreciate how many hours I spent. This was after more than an hour of cutting out shapes to get the side to look just right. I mean sure, people will look at the board and ooh and aah, but will they ever look close enough to see the fine details? It was rough, but I soldiered on. And here's a close-up look at those details. Please appreciate it. APPRECIATE IT!!

One of the coolest things I was able to do for this project was to design a Tot myself! I wanted to man my Skiff with a couple characters that didn't appear in the Celebration Orlando Star Tots run of 20. You can't play a character that's already on the board! So no Lando Skiff. No Weequay. I first chose Barada, which was made for Celebration Europe II, but there were no other existing Tots to choose from. Absent any other options, I decided to make my own Klaatu Skiff. This proved surprisingly easy, and lots of fun. And I'm really happy with how it turned out!


So that's my project. A fully-realized, playable, Star Wars board game. It's just a wonderful thing...

And check it out... it has the official Celebration logo on it and everything! With Lucasfilm copyrights! It's official! (technically "authorized but not approved" according to Chris)

So who's adding "Lucasfilm board game designer" to his resume? This guy!
I hope you enjoyed my big reveal here. It was, ahem, an adventure. If you'd like to get your hands on one of these, it's gonna be tough. You'll need to track down a Collecting Track participant who doesn't think this is the coolest gift ever, and I don't know if there is one. I'm certainly not giving up mine!
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