MELBOURNE MONOPOLY

It's been a quick minute since I've last posted on here but I've got a story to tell.

Within the first two months that we were living in Melbourne, we had a craving to play board games. We had a deck of cards and had exhausted nearly every card game we could think of. We even handcrafted (with very limited supplies) our own games of 'Things in a Box' and 'Scattergories.' But we wanted more (mostly because of Eric's competitiveness and absurd rules). 

One night, we decided to take the plunge and head on down to the Big Dub (aka Big W) to purchase a board game. We were set on Monopoly. However we were so poor that seeing the price of $25 made us cringe. Out of the corners of our eyes, there is was, a Star Wars version of Monopoly heavily discounted! It made no nevermind that it was Star Wars, we just wanted Monopoly. Sure enough, we pay for it at the checkout and start dealing out cash to split the cost. We walk the half block back up to my apartment, open the game in pure excitement only to find out the two essential pieces of the game were missing: the dice and the playing tokens. 

Within minutes, we took the game back to return in and get our money back for the useless game. It was a struggle though as the clerk was trying to tell us that we are the ones who had taken the pieces. After everything was cleared up and we meandered through the game section one last time, we settled on Scrabble. Scrabble was our go to game for the next eight months and yet I can't think of a time where we either played the game properly or finished it.  

Our time in Melbourne had come and gone and like most people who return 'home' after calling another place 'home,' you become rather nostalgic about the places you've visited and, in general, the memories had.

One day I had an idea and decided to smash a bunch of my thoughts together to make Melbourne Monopoly. I started plotting out which places we've been that have similar characteristics to those of Melbourne properties. I'm a list maker and I have lists of lists for this thing. I was too excited.

I got started straight away in creating and customizing property cards, chance cards and community chest type cards. The game board is what took the longest, but I do love it. I included things that pertained to the experiences we had and the icons of Melbourne that could never be forgotten! 

On the board I included things that we used the most such as trains, trams, and their maps as well as Ferderation Square and the gorgeous city skyline!

Making the little houses on the property cards proved to be a bit tedious, but I think they turned out great!

After months of putting this together and waiting to send it off, I finally had the opportunity to give this to my mate, Eric, in person! Not only did I have so much fun making this customize board game, I also love the way it turned out! I love it so much that I am off to make one for myself! 

I made the train graphic to match the symbols that Melbourne Metro used. It worked out perfectly that I could use all four of the stations we used the most!

Trish was our agent and even when she would ring us at 6am it was always great to hear her
voice saying "Hi Doll, it's Trish." 

The chance cards have the Dumb Ways to Die characters on them as we would see these
dudes everywhere at the train stations.