Being a made-up holiday based around a stupid pun, Star Wars Day doesn’t have very many beloved traditions of its own. You could watch all seven movies while drinking blue milk and stick-based food, but only half of them are good and both blue milk and stick-based food are kind of obscure references. “Real” holidays tend to involve communal activities that families can do together, like painting/hunting for eggs, openings gifts, or setting off fireworks, and now a crowdfunding campaign might be able to give Star Wars Day one of its own in the form of a new board game about fighting monsters.
Called HoloGrid: Monster Battle, the “augmented reality board game” bears more than a passing resemblance to Dejarik, the game that Chewbacca and C-3PO play in Star Wars (the “let the Wookiee win” scene), and that’s entirely on purpose. The creator of HoloGrid is none other than Phil Tippett, the visual effects animator who actually made Dejarik, and the board game is clearly being designed as way to try and make a real-life version of that holographic monster-based chess game. The campaign is looking to raise $100,000 by June 7, and should it surpass that goal, the developers are planning to throw in additional features like online multiplayer, additional monsters, and—perhaps most intriguing—VR support.
Backers who pledge $30 can get a free copy of the game once its released (assuming it meets the $100,000 goal), with people who are willing to donate more money getting rewards like 3D-printed figurines of the monsters, signed copies of the game, and a tour of Phil Tippett’s studio. Unfortunately, there’s no word on how much money it would take to make this into an officially licensed Star Wars game, but considering how carefully the Kickstarter page avoids mentioning any particular wars in space, it seems like that’s probably not going to happen either way.
You can see the Kickstarter pitch video below, and there’s more information at the page itself.