About this project
Evolution: CLIMATE (a stand-alone boardgame)
$337,325
6,969
Evolution: Climate is a stand-alone game for 2 - 6 players in the best selling Evolution product line. The Evolution base game is so vivid and true-to-life that it was recently featured in the world's leading scientific journal, Nature.
In Evolution: Climate, players adapt their species in a dynamic ecosystem where food is scarce, predators lurk, and the climate can swing between scorching hot and icy cold. Traits like a Hard Shell and Horns can protect your species from Carnivores while a Long Neck will help them get food that others cannot reach. Heavy Fur and Migratory can protect your species from the cold while being Nocturnal or Burrowing will provide protection from the cruel desert sun. With over 200,000 ways to evolve your species, every game evolves into a different adventure.
If you don't own Evolution, then buy the stand-alone Evolution: CLIMATE ($55 pledge level). It contains everything you need to play Evolution: CLIMATE.
If you already own Evolution, then buy the Evolution: CLIMATE conversion kit ($25 pledge level). It contains everything you need to transform the base game into Evolution: CLIMATE.
Below are links to 3rd-party reviews of Climate prototypes. Some details may be different in the final game.
GeekDad: "I can’t say enough how impressed I’ve been with the Evolution game series, and I highly recommend taking a look at Climate." Full Review
SpaceBiff: "Not only are you competing with other species, but against the land itself. There are new methods for survival, a fresh crop of ways to die, and even more reasons to play it over and over, observing as different combinations of interdependent species, fearsome carnivores, and the climate itself conspire to prevent you from thriving. This is Evolution at its toughest and most rewarding." Full Review
FatherGeek: "The Climate track introduces a lot more strategy and tactics. I have to think more about what I will add to the Watering Hole, what Trait cards to use, and what situations I need to prepare for." Full Review
Climate features original watercolors by world-renowned nature artist Catherine Hamilton. Catherine taught as a professor at Rhode Island School of Design between 1997 and 2003. She was featured in the 2012 HBO documentary "Birders: the Central Park Effect" and has developed a body of work that crosses the boundaries between artistic and scientific investigation.
We'll post more art from the game as the campaign progresses. Catherine Hamilton is hard at work at this very moment creating wonderfully beautiful watercolors to help bring this game to life. What's this? It's the middle of the night you say? It doesn't matter! Catherine Hamilton does not sleep.
Evolution: CLIMATE stand-alone comes with everything you need to play the game. It comes with 48 new CLIMATE trait cards and a modified version of the 129 trait cards from the Evolution base set.
Technical Note for those who care: It is possible (although a little cluncky) to play the Evolution base game using the components from the Climate stand-alone. Read Update #4 for details.
The Evolution: CLIMATE conversion kit comes with everything you need to convert your base set of Evolution into Evolution: CLIMATE.
- 1) Remove Ambush, Burrowing, Defensive Herding, and Carnivore from the trait cards in your base set of Evolution.
- 2) Shuffle the 86 cards from the conversion kit into the remaining base set cards.
- 3) Use the Climate Track instead of the Watering Hole.
This video shows how to play the base game of Evolution:
Evolution: CLIMATE builds upon the rules of the Evolution base set. The centerpiece of Evolution: CLIMATE is the Climate Track, a 21" x 9" Watering Hole that keeps track of the climate and features a dramatic watercolor vista by Catherine Hamilton. Here's a prototype of the Climate Track made from her rough draft concept sketch:
The climate moves between scorching hot where large animals die from the heat and icy cold where small animals die from the cold. This system is intended to mirror the actual effects of ambient temperature on animals. Here is a link to the "surface area-volume ratio effect" science that is being modeled. Food is abundant when the climate is warm and scarce when it is scorching hot or freezing.
Every new trait introduced in CLIMATE helps prevent population loss from the heat or the cold. Species will need these new traits to adapt to extreme climate conditions. In the base set Evolution, species had to adapt to food scarcity and predators. Now there is an additional threat to survival: Mother Nature!
Adapting to a Changing Ecosystem!
The heart of the Evolution game system is adapting to a continually changing ecosystem. There is no best strategy or best card combination in Evolution: Climate.
Video Overview
The only video overview we have of Climate was done by a German. This will help you understand the new additions that Climate brings to the base Evolution game.
Stretch goals marked Kickstarter Exclusive below will be available in limited quantities at northstargames.com after the campaign is over and rewards have shipped.
Among them, you'll see Oversized Scenario Cards. These are 70x120mm cards, illustrated by the fabulous artist Anna Kryczkowska, each of which changes a fundamental aspect of the game.
To use them, players pick a scenario card before the game begins and the rule described on it will apply through the entire game. Example: the Cretaceous Period card specifies each species can have an unlimited number of traits.
For all levels that involve shipment of physical games, backers are limited to 3 total copies per pledge (all copies should be the same game; no mixing pledge levels). To add games beyond the first, manually enter the $ total when making your pledge or click the blue "Manage" button next to a previously made pledge.
All pledges must be complete by March 22nd at 11:59 pm EST. We don't use a pledge manager—you may not increase your pledge or add-on items at KS prices after the campaign ends.
Only backers who pledge at the $25 or $55 levels may add-on. To add any of the items below to your pledge, manually enter the $ listed below when making your pledge or click the blue "Manage" button next to a previously made pledge.
You are limited to ONE of each add-on.
The shipping fees listed below are automatically added to your pledge at checkout. Shipping is EU friendly and won't incur VAT/import duties, nor for US, Canada, and Australia. You may incur duties in other countries, but only if there's more than one game in your order.
We subsidize shipping for every backer, so the shipping cost for each backer is $10 cheaper than it would otherwise be.
Note: after the campaign is over, we'll send you a survey to get your shipping information. Backers who haven't filled theirs out by May 20 will be charged an extra $15 shipping, because shipping late individual rewards is much more expensive than the bulk shipping we do for those who fill out their surveys on time.
We're running an awesome promotion for Evolution 2nd Edition and the Climate Conversion Kit through our U.S. and Canadian distributors during this campaign. Contact luke [at] northstargames [dot] com for details or ask your favorite distributor if they're participating in North Star Games' Climate Kickstarter promotion.
We're grateful you've taken the time to read this far. We wish there were a way for us to express the full measure of our thanks on this page, but pixels aren't enough. Please drop us a line with questions and concerns.
Risks and challenges
North Star Games has been publishing board games for over 12 years. We know what it takes to produce high quality board games in large quantities. We have top notch employees and customer service.
This is our third Kickstarter campaign associated with the Evolution product line, and by now we have a clear idea of the pain points for a campaign of this type.
For example, one mistake we made in the last campaign was to use several distributors to ship to different regions around the world. This made fulfillment complicated and made it hard for us to monitor shipments. As a result too many boxes arrived to backers damaged, or failed to arrive at all.
Now, instead, we're using a single fulfillment house which specializes in shipping rewards worldwide, one recommended by Jamie Stegmaier, whose campaigns are the gold standard in this area. This allows us to get games to you more reliably and more cheaply, and that backers automatically get tracking numbers.
As ever, unforeseen manufacturing problems can arise. The chances are low because the components for the expansion will be made by the same manufacturer that makes the base game, the Evolution: Flight expansion, and with whom we have a productive relationship. If a manufacturing problem should arise, we have lots of experience working through manufacturing issues, and can bring it to bear.
Finally, whatever problems may arise, we will continue our policy of replacing any components with which our backers aren't satisfied. This minimizes the risk to you.
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Funding period
- (43 days)