There’s no question that I owe most of my extensive historical knowledge to Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989). So when I was approached by Barry & Jason Games and Entertainment to design a board game in Bill & Ted’s honor, with the film rights securely in hand, I strummed my air guitar in excitement.
It was to be a travel trivia game for the teens, testing their knowledge in geography, American history, world history, women in history, heinous history, and music history. As the game designer, I took inspiration from not only the film but also from the classic 80’s style movie poster. The game box is a metallic phone booth surrounded in electricity. Open the door and you’re greeted by Rufus who introduces the game rules and instructions.
Players move tokens of either Bill, Ted, Princess Joana or Princess Elizabeth around a game board, adding Joan of Arc, Genghis Khan and other historical figures to their individual phone booth score cards with each correct answer. Bill & Ted’s Excellent Trivia Travel Game hit the shelves of Target, Barnes & Noble and a host of other national retail stores and was featured in Nerdist, The Hollywood Reporter and others. I’m very proud of how the game turned out but even more proud that I now know what happened at the Battle of Sterling Bridge.
