Lauras Sternenspiel (2002)

"O my dear, what a mess!", mother burst out while clapping her hands over her head. She has just entered the children's room. Laura and her younger brother Tommy have been playing all day and their toys are scattered across the little room. They must tidy the room before they go to bed, but it is already beginning to get dark. Will the children be able to finish and be in bed before Laura's star is twinkling in the sky?

Laura's Star Game is about playing - hearing - feeling - reading!

The 12 Displays form the entire room of Laura's as a 6×2 picture. Each display has two empty slots for a couple of almost identical items like cars, airplanes, hand mirrors, flashlights, rubber ducks and slippers.

These items are placed inside a bag that has two separate pockets, and each pocket will contain one of each item plus either the dog or the bear. The 7 pieces of the Sun is assembled to form a clever timer: it has a central star-shaped part plus 5 pieces, each with 3 beams filling out the slots between the arms of the star. Finally is a cloud piece covering the sun when the game begins.

A player will stick a hand into each pocket of the bag, trying to identify two identical shapes without looking. This is much harder than it seems since the pieces have nicely rounded edges that makes them feel somewhat like each other, and even adults will find it difficult. It is however good training of the motor skills - especially for the wrong hand!

When the player is confident that two identical pieces have been found are the two pieces simultaneously retracted: If identical have the player succeed and the pieces are placed in the corresponding display and placed in front of the player.

Should the two pieces turn out not to be identical are they returned to the same pockets they were drawn from, and a piece of the Sun puzzle is removed. When only the central part of the sun remains will it be flipped over the next time a player fails, thus showing the star of the story. It's bedtime, the game is over and all the players lost because they didn't make the room tidy in time.

If the players manage to make the room in time, that is when the only tiles left in the bag are the dog and the bear, will the winner the player with most displays in front of her.