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New January 16, 2012: Dinosaur Dash – Evolution: The Origin of Species – Terra Evolution
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All Evolution Games:
American Megafauna –
Animality –
Archaic Animalia –
Bios: Megafauna –
Dinosaurs of Catan –
Darwinci –
Darwin's Finches –
Dinosaur Dash –
Dominant Species –
Evo –
Evolution [Arial] –
Evolution [Bütehorn] –
Evolution [Super-Ape] –
Evolution Earth: Cataclysm –
The Evolution Game –
Evolution in the Box –
Evolution: The Origin of Species –
Extinction: The Game of Ecology –
Extinction –
Galapagos –
Insecta –
Intelligent Design vs. Evolution –
Lamarckian Poker –
Origins: How We Became Human –
Pangaea –
Primordial Soup –
Primordial Soup: Freshly Spiced Expansion –
Quirks –
Shapeshifters –
Terra Evolution –
Tyranno Ex –
Urland –
Urland Expansion –
Wildlife
More:
Learn About Evolution
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Also...
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Animality
Steven Diaz; Painted Horse Games-2007
A species begins as a single body part and evolves, gaining additional
parts and abilities. Each turn players must choose between hunting, birthing,
changing the environment (?) or developing a new effect. Eventually
players can attack one another.
For 2-4 players.
Animalia
Lloyd Krassner;
Warp Spawn Games-2008
Print-and-play card game
in which primitive animals colonize
Pangaea during the Permian-Triassic period. Each players is
represented by one of Insects, Crustaceans,
Mammals, Amphibians, Reptiles, Dinosaurs, Worms, Birds, Marsupials or
Arachnids, each of which has its own special power.
Board spaces are defined by
temperature, elevation, and rainfall and players attempt to evolve
their type for all three.
For 2 players.
Bios: Megafauna
Philip Eklund; Sierra Madre Games-2011; 1-5
The third version of American Megafauna
features considerable streamlining and simplification.
To be published October 2011.
Darwin's Finches
Bob Flaherty; self-2010; 2-4
Web-published effort in which the players both control the evolution
of the Galapagos' finches as well as collect finch specimens. Played with
two decks of traditional cards, the finches move and evolve from island
to island, and also move with respect to their dominance. On each turn
players, restricted by the types of cards they're holding,
must determine which is the most beneficial option.
By the end they want the finch type of which they "have the most
stock" to be evolutionarily-dominant as well as migrated as far as possible
from the starting point. It's an interesting topic, but needs a better
set of instructions. Mixing evolution and collection muddles
the theme a fair amount.
[more]
Dinosaurs of Catan
Rick Heli; 2001; 3-4
A variant for the popular game Die Siedler von Catan / The Settlers of Catan
[rules]
Darwinci
Martin Schlegel; LudoArt/Heidelberger-2009; 3-5; 9+
Game of auctioning precious bones and then putting them together as
creatures.
Dinosaur Dash
Dominant Species
Evo
Evolution
Evolution
Evolution
The Evolution Game
Evolution Earth: Cataclysm
Evolution in the Box
Evolution:
The Origin of Species
Extinction: The Game of Ecology
Extinction
Galapagos
Insecta
Intelligent Design vs. Evolution
unknown; Green Board Game Co.-unknown; 2-4; 5+
Dice and trivia game in which player dinosaurs start in the Triassic
and race to the Cretaceous. Includes forty-nine question and event
cards using images from the Natural History Museum.
Chad Jensen; GMT-2010; 2-6
Worker placement and
area control game beginning 90,000 BC just as an ice age begins.
The possible powers are mammal, reptile, bird, amphibian, arachnid and insect.
Lasts about 3 hours.
Philippe Keyaerts; Eurogames/Descartes-2001;
3-5
Your aim is to develop a new species of dinosaur including features such as
weather, land (3 levels from sea level (warmer) to high mountains (colder),
other players' dinosaurs, movement points, attacks and an auction system
allows you to buy new genes (horn, fur, leg, etc.) in order to evolve your
dinosaurs.
The prototype was the winner of the Sim D'Or 99.
[Review: Haag]
David Wells; Ariel/Fantasy Games Unlimited-1976; 2
This is played in rounds divided into three phases:
Growth, Movement and Attack. Players begin by placing one piece on any
intersection. Then in Growth, new pieces are placed for the existing
ones, but not adjacent to any other pieces. The maximum size of a group
is five pieces. After all growth is complete, Movement begins. Only
groups of two or more pieces may move and moving has several other rules.
Following this are Attacks. Each piece bordering an opposing piece may
attack, calculating its strength from its neighboring pieces of the same
color. The weaker piece is removed. Only one piece may attack in a round.
At the end, for each occupied intersection a player receives one point.
Also known as Guerilla.
David Wells; Bütehorn-1979; 2
Pure abstract in which players vie to
control the most area on an abstract grid.
Tokens are placed on the intersection points of
lines. Up to five adjacent ones form a group.
Groups can attack other groups by being larger.
The result is placement of a hindrance token which
limits the smaller group's expansion possibilities.
Antoine Messiou; Super-Ape Games-2006;
2-6; 9+
Players attempt to lay their path of six cards in proper evolutionary order
(from bacteria to primates) and have their token arrive at the last
stage to win. There appears to be quite a bit of luck as one of the chief
mechanisms is to correctly predict the next card to be drawn from the deck,
based solely on what has been seen before. There are also event cards in
the form of volcanoes and thunderbolts and the chance to affect other
players by inserting dangerous cards into their paths. The chief purpose
here is education.
Simon Boswell & Phillip Lewis (Finland)-1997;
2-4
Simulates competition for territory with other species, changing
environmental conditions, plagues, starvation, natural disasters, global
catastrophes, mutation, ecological niches and the geological sequence
from the Precambrian to the Pleistocene on an abstract board.
Tomi Rantala & Jaana Hintsanen; Mindwarrior-2009/Tactic-2009; 2-4
Deck-building card game in which players build the continents of the
world and then try to conquer them with their evolving species.
Re-published 2011 as
Terra Evolution.
Jirí Mikolá; Jirasgames-2009; 2-5
Players begin play representing a forerunner of modern man, trying to
find meat and evolve his brain, which helps hunting skills. Command
cards are used to decide where the player's tribe will move and
whether they will be able to hunt any mammoths.
Dmitry Knorre & Sergey Machin; Stolitsa Design Group-2010/RightGames-2011; 2-4
Sort of a take that! card game
from Russia. Hand cards are played to represent dinosaurs, the
limitation being that there's no point is playing more creatures
than there is food. On top of these can be played traits. Finally
a die is rolled to see how much food – in the form of red
pieces resembling Chiclets – is available. Players take turns
drafting this nutrition. Those unable to eat can try to eat another
player's dino if it doesn't have some kind of protection or if the
carnivore has the solution to that protection. Traits include things
like swimming, sharp vision, cooperation, fat storage, etc.
There's a lot of tactical back-and-forth, but not much real strategy.
Expanded 2011 by Evolution: Time to Fly, which adds even more traits.
Stephen Hubell; Incredible Game Company-1993; 3-6
During the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous
players try to expand their herbivorous dinosaurs as much as possible
by "laying eggs" but their plans are impinged by carnivores and other
calamities.
Gary Sinauer; Sinauer Associates-1968?/1970/1971/
Carolina Biological Supply Company-1978
An educational product. There were rules for several games, but only the main one seems
to have any interest. Players represent a species on an island and have genes, reproductive
rate, prey attack and defense, habitat, mobility, etc. Players can
change their "genes" during play, with players eliminated by competition,
being preyed upon, or over-population.
The 1978 edition changed the reproductive attribute cards
from a fixed litter size to a multiple of the number of creatures in an
area.
[more]
David Dobson; Plankton Games-2010/The Game Crafter-2010; 2-4
Card game in which players try to get their species to survive by
competing for food and possibly eating their enemies.
Phil Eklund;
Fat Messiah Games-1995;
1-7
Mix-and-match body parts to create mutant bugs and
try them in combat! Then mutate into new and larger forms.
Detailed simulation of desert arthropod combat but easy to learn.
44 counters, 131 cards, 17 x 22" map.
Rainforest and Trilobite are expansions to this game.
Ray Comfort & Kirk Cameron;
Living Waters-
Lamarckian Poker
James Ernest & Dave Howell;
April 1999 issue of Games (the magazine);
2-6
Requiring only an ordinary deck of 52 cards, players follow the
wrongheaded Lamarckian principles to "evolve" their hands into the
best possible poker hand.
[rules]
Origins: How We Became Human
Philip Eklund;
iSierra Madre Games-2007;
2-5
This is the game of human evolution. Players begin as one of the
Neanderthals, Cro-Magnons, Peking Man, Homo Floresiensis (often called
the hobbits) or Archaic Humans and must progress through three eras,
ending about World War I. In the first era they must develop their brains
to become fully human. In the second era they domesticate plants and
animals in order to harness energy. In the third era they exploit natural
resources to gain even more capabilities.
There are a number of innovative game systems plus auctions and occasional
simple conflict. The number of different technologies on the two-part
cards is impressive. There are also extensive background notes (in English
only with rules and components in both English and German).
[more]
Pangaea: The Evolution Game
Pyramid Games (UK)-1986; 2-6
The game object is to evolve from a lungfish into modern man.
A set of event cards allow moving predators,
evolving predators, and shifting continents.
Somewhat high on the luck factor.
A little like
American Megafauna
stripped very far down.
Also known as Evolution.
Primordial Soup
Frank Nestel;
Doris & Frank-1997;
3-4
Amoeba compete and evolve, somewhat abstractly.
[Variant]
[Variant genes]
[Review: O'Sullivan]
[Review: Game Cabinet]
[Buy it at Amazon]
Primordial Soup: Freshly Spiced Expansion
Frank Nestel;
Doris & Frank-1998;
3-4
Adds new gene cards and enough bits and pieces to permit up to 6 players.
[Buy it at Amazon]
Quirks
Eon-1980; 1-4; 7+
An evolutionary card game; out of print.
Also published were
Quirks Expansion Kit 1
and
Quirks Expansion Kit 2.
Shapeshifters
Neal Sofge & Michael Wasson;
Fat Messiah Games-1991;
2-4
An evolutionary battle of wizards using shapeshifting magic to transform
into a number of different animal forms and thereby destroy their opponents.
Terra Evolution
Jaana Hintsanen, Tomi Rantala & Esa Wiik; Mindwarrior-2011; 2-4; 8+
Deck-building card game in which players build the continents of the
world and then try to conquer them with their evolving species.
This is a more polished version of
Evolution Earth: Cataclysm.
Expanded 2012 by Terra Evolution: Tree of Life which
adds a fifth seat and eight new species cards.
From Finland.
Tyranno Ex
Karl-Heinz Schmiel; Moskito-1990/Avalon Hill; 2-4
A memory-based game of somewhat abstract evolution.
[Review: Game Cabinet]
Urland
Frank Nestel;
Doris & Frank-2001;
3-5
A successor to
Primordial Soup
in theme only, probably one of the greatest successes from Essen 2001.
Perhaps in response to complaints that every Primordial Soup
turn was more or less the same, now
one has at least three or four different types of turns.
There is the turn in which one chooses the island of competition,
after that the turn one spends only planning, after that the turn
in which one goes last and has a very good chance of knowing what the
land of competition will be and finally the neutral turn.
As in the predecessor there are still gene cards which permit players
to "break" the normal rules, but now the game is one of regional dominance
rather than of feeding. In addition, in deciding to breed more fish (which
will later walk onto land), one usually helps other players as well as oneself.
There seem to be curiously few gene cards, but there
is already precedent for an expansion kit. What many players may not realize
and what designers will most admire is just how clean all the rules have been
kept, how just by details like the clever ordering of the phases, the handling
of the scoring track, etc., many extra and niggly rules, e.g. what to do
about ties, have been very neatly avoided. Recommended for all strategists.
Wildlife
Wolfgang Kramer;
Clementoni; 2002; 2-6
Features up to six types of organisms, each adapted for
a different type of landscape: eagles (mountains), bears
(forest), crocodiles (water), mammoths (steppe), humans (savannah) and
snakes (desert).
Each player tries to expand into other landscape areas and evolve new abilities.
When food becomes scarce, the types fight each other. Success
depends on how well they are adapted to the landscape.
Spotlight on Games > Ludographies