The Emma Expansion is coming along...

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I've been working on the promised Emma Expansion on and off since we hit the $40,000 stretch goal of our Kickstarter campaign last October. I promised backers that I would complete a Beta test version and make it available to them by October 2014. (I figured a year was a pretty reasonable timeline.) I've been chipping away at it and have started to finalize some of the cards which you can see in the picture. Here's a brief outline of my process so far:

1. Research
So this basically involves watching every TV, movie, web, adaptation I can get ahold of, as well as reading online summaries, notes, and of course the original source material. For adaptations I've watched the 1972 BBC mini-series, the 1996 movie staring Gwyneth Paltrow, the less well known 1996 TV movie staring Kate Beckinsale, Clueless, Emma Approved, and my personal favorite the 2009 TV mini-series staring Romola Garai. 

2. Brain storming
I have a bunch of notes of random ideas for various cards and character powers. This was significantly easier than brainstorming the original game. Since I decided early on that Emma should be an expansion/companion to Marrying Mr. Darcy, several of the mechanics were already in place. 

3. Writing/organizing
Eventually I started writing cards into my spreadsheet (picture above). I actually started by creating the left hand column which gave me an idea of what event cards were in MMD (like party cards, scandal cards) as a rough guide to what to include in Emma. It is definitely not going to be exactly the same- for example there are not as many scandals in Emma, but there will be much more Meddling. So there are some new mechanics that go along with gossiping, meddling, "helping" your friends, and my favorite - match making. I'm still writing cards for the beta test but as of today I'm about 2/3 of the was done. 

4. Making "cards" 
I had my husband set up a file that I could transfer my written text into a card size text box in a document that will eventually become the PDF Print and Play. I probably should wait until all the cards are written in the spreadsheet, but seeing it look like an actual card is really motivating. These are about 1/3 complete. We're keeping them very simple and art free until we've got the game play and text finalized. 

That's where I am at this point! Once I finish I'll do some in-house alpha testing, make revisions, and then send the files out to Kickstarter backers. I am optimistic that we would be able to eventually Kickstart a print run of the expansion and make it available in stores.