This looks really good! As someone who played the original evolution a lot I’m really happy with the fixes they made to deal with the issues in the first game. One thing I miss tho is the art style. While these images are beautiful, I miss the rainbow water color style of the original game.
I’ve already backed the game and can’t wait to play it when I get my copy next summer, but I wish they’d kept the size tokens. I really liked that mechanic.
I love Climate, which is still one of my favorite games to date, and also have backed Oceans when it was on KS (although I still don't have a chance to play it). I'm also a big fan of MtG. I don't get it though what problems the designer is trying to fix and why Nature would be a better game than Evolution/Climate.
@@tommasopenati9635 basically a more approachable and better balanced core game, with more variety and ecosystems should you get the modules. 24 different ecosystems are available in the Big Box, with more to come in the future.
I'm a sucker for nature-related board games, just can't resist them. Your tutorial confirmed this one needs to be added to my collection (even though my wallet wants to have a word lol), thank you Monique! ☺ Edit: OMG She even wore a shirt with giraffes, my heart... 🦒
Hope this isn’t reskinned for a x.0 version of evolution again in a few years.... really love the support ideas for it over the next few years. Like the nocturnal module!!!
Evolution has been a very popular game for the past decade, but it was also a very divisive one. People either loved it or hated it. I've taken all of the feedback, and thought very deeply about what elements rubbed people the wrong way, and if there was a way to solve those issues without ruining the beauty of the game. Nature fulfills the vision that I was originally shooting for. I'm going to be very happy designing modules for it over the next decade. I already have over 40 ideas in my sketchbook, and a significant amount of game architecture layed out for about 10 of them. I stopped designing expansion for Evolution because it was exceedingly complicated to change between expansions, and I couldn't bring myself to ask our fans to do something that I didn't want to do myself. It also bother the heck out of me that I couldn't find a viable way to make the expansions compatible. So I continued to think about how to solve the issues long after I stopped designing expansions for the system. This is not a money grab. This is a longterm passion project that we've been working on for years. Nature is better tested than any game I've ever worked on.
@crapuchettes thank you! Just to be clear, I'm a long time fan and love evolution and Oceans. I fully plan on supporting this and ditching evolution, but keeping Oceans. Really hope the nocturnal expansion moves up the queue!
@@sleepyazn15 Yay! That's nice to hear. I will start thinking about the Nocturnal world. It wasn't on my radar until it polled so high. It will take a while before I come up with architechture that is compatible with the theme and all of the other modules. Sometimes it takes years before I'm struck with something. I don't like to rush it because that leads to a bunch of modules with similar experiences. But you're right, I need to open up 10 tabs on nocturnal animals and ecusystems and start thinking about scientific ideas that could be easily communicated in a game.
I own evolution and the climate conversion kit. Really great games. From this tutorial Nature seems extremely similar to base evolution. Is this just a way to make people buy evolution again and then sell loads of expansions on top?
The Nature core game is streamlined and designed to be more welcoming to new players. The modules let you customize the game for your group, with each module dramatically changing the game, plus offering a lot more variety. Evolution had 3 ecosystems with all expansions. Nature has been redesigned from the ground up and already has 24.
The biggest difference seems to be the impact of extinction. In Evolution, your extinct species was gone. In this version it just comes back to life in the next round.
That is absolutely not the goal. If I could have released this content within the Evolution game structure, I would have done that. That's what I wanted to do, but it wasn't possible. Instead, all of those ideas for Evolution sat in my sketchbook as I considered how to solve the problems that were baked into the Evolution game system. It took my over 12 years in total to bring this vision to life, but now that it's here, Nature will be supported for at least 10 years, but hopefully much longer. It's a really solid and robust game system. My dream is to create a game system that outlives me.
@@neilgoodacre3655 That and the modular system that allows you to combine them. Those are the two single biggest changes, but there are many other smaller changes that combine to make the experience much smoother and more engaging. Couple that with 5 years of rigorous playtesting and you also have a game system that is much better balanced than Evolution (I'm looking at you Cooperation).
Kind of confused as to what you mean. You can't solve a game that has random elements and hidden information. Perhaps you're wondering if there is a dominant strategy? There isn't. You cannot win at Nature unless you adapt to what the other players are doing. The winning strategy changes dramtically from game to game.
@@BeforeYouPlay I struggle with it thematically. Here's this brand new species that's emerged from the primordial ooze. By the way it's huge and there's loads of them.
There is a penalty. You don't score as many points during that round. Once you pay that penalty, you get the chance to outplay your opponents on a future round starting on even ground. In Evolution, you pay for a mistake in that round, and also in every future round until the end of the game from the loss of resources and from drawing fewer cards in future rounds. That's why Evolution snowballs so dramatically. It's a case of the rich getting richer.
@@BeforeYouPlay Honestly, Nature is not an engine builder like Evolution. Every player starts every round with the same total number of resources. 7 in round 1, 14 in round 2, 21 in rounds 3, etc. Those resources are divided between cards, population, size, and traits. That's one of the biggest changes from Evolution to Nature. It's a game about finding better card synergies for the game environment (using your resources more efficeintly), but you don't have an engine that makes the rich get richer (which is typically what happens in an engine builder).
A game called Nature with the cover of a wild animal in a beautiful landscape? It must be eager to win the Most generic boardgame awards or something...
I think size and population they work well, at least in Evolution / Climate. When you add "horn" to small size animals, predators would avoid eating them because of the penalty. On the other hand, increasing the size at a certain point make it impossible for predators to eat you. So, these two factors offer two different ways to survive and thrive, which are very thematic for the game.
Im getitng really sick of game publishers having so many add ons immediately. Fair enough explainsions over time, but breaking down a product into modules from the off to just rinse more money is poor IMO. And the Kickstarter page suggests that to have the full game at retail will cost over $300!! Wtf!! Bad vibes all round.
At retail, you could simply buy the core game, and add a module for new options at your own pace. We're offering a $39 pledge for Nature, which will allow people the option of joining at whatever level they are comfortable with. That is a full game, however, if you buy the modules you'll have 24 different ways to play the game, with more to come in the future.
Nature has been ready for release for several years. We held off on releasing the game until we had several more modules finalized. This allowed me to work out the kinks of a modular game system (it's a very complicated affair) and demonstrate to people why a modular game system is awesome. Many hobby gamers would have been underwhelmed with Nature. The core game is designed to bring people into the Nature game system, but the real allure to hobby gamers is that there isn't a limit to the number of modules you can combine. Combining modules is the spark that makes the Nature game system awesome. We didn't remove anything from the game. Instead, we waited until there were enough modules to demonstrate the vision. There are currently 24 unique combination to explore. A year after launch when we release the Climate module and the Disease module, there will be over 100 combination to explore! Yes, it will cost another $20 to get a module, but it will provide a ridicules amount of content to explore once you're bought into the system.
@@crapuchettes The content is fake content. You charge for the content in the BOX. Combining things doesn't make "new" content. $20 for a tiny stack of cards sometimes a board is insane and you know it.
The margins we will get on the base game Nature are worse than anything we’ve ever released. That’s not an opinion. That’s math. We’re taking a risk on such low margins because we’re hoping to make up the difference with the modules. If you think my plan is to be rolling in money you are sorely mistaken about my character. I care about two things; designing beautiful works of art, and sharing them with the most amount of people possible. I have propped up NorthStar with my life’s saving for the past three years. $650k to be exact. I’m hoping to make this money back, but I know that I probably won’t. I made this investment because designing games is what I want to do with my life, not because I thought it would earn me money.
This looks really good! As someone who played the original evolution a lot I’m really happy with the fixes they made to deal with the issues in the first game. One thing I miss tho is the art style. While these images are beautiful, I miss the rainbow water color style of the original game.
There's a dinosaur module??? Count me in!!! 🦖
🦆 🥶 🦕 🌊 modules!
The best part it that Jurassic is compatible with all of the modules, so you can play with Dinos that fly in the Amazon Rainsforest. 🙂
I’ve already backed the game and can’t wait to play it when I get my copy next summer, but I wish they’d kept the size tokens. I really liked that mechanic.
Great tutorial!
Thank you!
I love Climate, which is still one of my favorite games to date, and also have backed Oceans when it was on KS (although I still don't have a chance to play it). I'm also a big fan of MtG. I don't get it though what problems the designer is trying to fix and why Nature would be a better game than Evolution/Climate.
Feels like Evolution big box re-theme to me 🤔
Agree, not sure what’s the added value if someone already owns evolution base game, flight and climate (loved the tutorial as always!!)
I dont know Evolution, but it says its part of the evolution series on kickstarter lol
Thats also less content and 3x more expensive
@@tommasopenati9635 basically a more approachable and better balanced core game, with more variety and ecosystems should you get the modules. 24 different ecosystems are available in the Big Box, with more to come in the future.
Oui c'est clairement un Évolution, dommage, je l'ai déjà je ne vais donc pas l'acheter même s'il m'intéressait
I'm a sucker for nature-related board games, just can't resist them. Your tutorial confirmed this one needs to be added to my collection (even though my wallet wants to have a word lol),
thank you Monique!
☺
Edit: OMG She even wore a shirt with giraffes, my heart... 🦒
Hope this isn’t reskinned for a x.0 version of evolution again in a few years.... really love the support ideas for it over the next few years. Like the nocturnal module!!!
We've got a 10 year plan to support this game, so Nature will be around for a long time yet.
Evolution has been a very popular game for the past decade, but it was also a very divisive one. People either loved it or hated it.
I've taken all of the feedback, and thought very deeply about what elements rubbed people the wrong way, and if there was a way to solve those issues without ruining the beauty of the game.
Nature fulfills the vision that I was originally shooting for. I'm going to be very happy designing modules for it over the next decade. I already have over 40 ideas in my sketchbook, and a significant amount of game architecture layed out for about 10 of them.
I stopped designing expansion for Evolution because it was exceedingly complicated to change between expansions, and I couldn't bring myself to ask our fans to do something that I didn't want to do myself.
It also bother the heck out of me that I couldn't find a viable way to make the expansions compatible. So I continued to think about how to solve the issues long after I stopped designing expansions for the system.
This is not a money grab. This is a longterm passion project that we've been working on for years. Nature is better tested than any game I've ever worked on.
@crapuchettes thank you! Just to be clear, I'm a long time fan and love evolution and Oceans. I fully plan on supporting this and ditching evolution, but keeping Oceans. Really hope the nocturnal expansion moves up the queue!
@@sleepyazn15 Yay! That's nice to hear. I will start thinking about the Nocturnal world. It wasn't on my radar until it polled so high. It will take a while before I come up with architechture that is compatible with the theme and all of the other modules. Sometimes it takes years before I'm struck with something. I don't like to rush it because that leads to a bunch of modules with similar experiences.
But you're right, I need to open up 10 tabs on nocturnal animals and ecusystems and start thinking about scientific ideas that could be easily communicated in a game.
I own evolution and the climate conversion kit. Really great games. From this tutorial Nature seems extremely similar to base evolution. Is this just a way to make people buy evolution again and then sell loads of expansions on top?
The Nature core game is streamlined and designed to be more welcoming to new players. The modules let you customize the game for your group, with each module dramatically changing the game, plus offering a lot more variety. Evolution had 3 ecosystems with all expansions. Nature has been redesigned from the ground up and already has 24.
The biggest difference seems to be the impact of extinction. In Evolution, your extinct species was gone. In this version it just comes back to life in the next round.
That is absolutely not the goal.
If I could have released this content within the Evolution game structure, I would have done that. That's what I wanted to do, but it wasn't possible.
Instead, all of those ideas for Evolution sat in my sketchbook as I considered how to solve the problems that were baked into the Evolution game system.
It took my over 12 years in total to bring this vision to life, but now that it's here, Nature will be supported for at least 10 years, but hopefully much longer. It's a really solid and robust game system.
My dream is to create a game system that outlives me.
@@neilgoodacre3655 That and the modular system that allows you to combine them. Those are the two single biggest changes, but there are many other smaller changes that combine to make the experience much smoother and more engaging.
Couple that with 5 years of rigorous playtesting and you also have a game system that is much better balanced than Evolution (I'm looking at you Cooperation).
This game definitely seems interesting, although it looks "mathematically solvable", especially when going last. Am i wrong?
I guess you need to take into account revenge from other players as soon as the round ends and you are no longer last
Each round you'll adapt your species, and turn order changes. There are too many unknowns within the game to be able to solve this implicitly.
Kind of confused as to what you mean. You can't solve a game that has random elements and hidden information.
Perhaps you're wondering if there is a dominant strategy? There isn't. You cannot win at Nature unless you adapt to what the other players are doing. The winning strategy changes dramtically from game to game.
This looks very similar to Oceans...
Nature is a redesign of Evolution. The game play is similar to Evolution, but it plays very differently from Oceans.
Doctor, you have my vote!
🙂👍
😎
Can you play an add on on its own, or do you need the base game?
You need the base game.
Where's Naveem
He's at work haha
So there's no penalty for going extinct now?
It slows your engine but prevents a player from getting owned and falling behind within the first 2 rounds.
@@BeforeYouPlay I struggle with it thematically. Here's this brand new species that's emerged from the primordial ooze. By the way it's huge and there's loads of them.
There is a penalty. You don't score as many points during that round. Once you pay that penalty, you get the chance to outplay your opponents on a future round starting on even ground. In Evolution, you pay for a mistake in that round, and also in every future round until the end of the game from the loss of resources and from drawing fewer cards in future rounds. That's why Evolution snowballs so dramatically. It's a case of the rich getting richer.
@@BeforeYouPlay Honestly, Nature is not an engine builder like Evolution. Every player starts every round with the same total number of resources. 7 in round 1, 14 in round 2, 21 in rounds 3, etc. Those resources are divided between cards, population, size, and traits. That's one of the biggest changes from Evolution to Nature. It's a game about finding better card synergies for the game environment (using your resources more efficeintly), but you don't have an engine that makes the rich get richer (which is typically what happens in an engine builder).
A game called Nature with the cover of a wild animal in a beautiful landscape? It must be eager to win the Most generic boardgame awards or something...
That award was already won by a game named Magic. It has a fantasy setting in a world where magic exists.
But we’re hoping to win second prize.
looks kinda cool, but way too similar to their other games to justify buying it
Having a size and a population value is immediately confusing
I think size and population they work well, at least in Evolution / Climate. When you add "horn" to small size animals, predators would avoid eating them because of the penalty. On the other hand, increasing the size at a certain point make it impossible for predators to eat you. So, these two factors offer two different ways to survive and thrive, which are very thematic for the game.
Im getitng really sick of game publishers having so many add ons immediately. Fair enough explainsions over time, but breaking down a product into modules from the off to just rinse more money is poor IMO.
And the Kickstarter page suggests that to have the full game at retail will cost over $300!! Wtf!!
Bad vibes all round.
At retail, you could simply buy the core game, and add a module for new options at your own pace.
We're offering a $39 pledge for Nature, which will allow people the option of joining at whatever level they are comfortable with. That is a full game, however, if you buy the modules you'll have 24 different ways to play the game, with more to come in the future.
Nature has been ready for release for several years. We held off on releasing the game until we had several more modules finalized. This allowed me to work out the kinks of a modular game system (it's a very complicated affair) and demonstrate to people why a modular game system is awesome.
Many hobby gamers would have been underwhelmed with Nature. The core game is designed to bring people into the Nature game system, but the real allure to hobby gamers is that there isn't a limit to the number of modules you can combine.
Combining modules is the spark that makes the Nature game system awesome. We didn't remove anything from the game. Instead, we waited until there were enough modules to demonstrate the vision. There are currently 24 unique combination to explore. A year after launch when we release the Climate module and the Disease module, there will be over 100 combination to explore!
Yes, it will cost another $20 to get a module, but it will provide a ridicules amount of content to explore once you're bought into the system.
@@crapuchettes The content is fake content. You charge for the content in the BOX. Combining things doesn't make "new" content. $20 for a tiny stack of cards sometimes a board is insane and you know it.
The margins we will get on the base game Nature are worse than anything we’ve ever released. That’s not an opinion. That’s math.
We’re taking a risk on such low margins because we’re hoping to make up the difference with the modules.
If you think my plan is to be rolling in money you are sorely mistaken about my character. I care about two things; designing beautiful works of art, and sharing them with the most amount of people possible.
I have propped up NorthStar with my life’s saving for the past three years. $650k to be exact. I’m hoping to make this money back, but I know that I probably won’t. I made this investment because designing games is what I want to do with my life, not because I thought it would earn me money.