Perhaps a bit of a different spin on "nature" but I'd probably put Parks into this category. Sure, it's not directly about the plants or animals - but it's thematically about people spending quality time in nature (that is, going on hiking trips in national parks). The art is just so beautiful too - it's made me want to visit some of these parks that I hadn't even heard of!
I just played Verdant last weekend. It's a tableau builder where you're trying to match the lighting conditions in the rooms of your house with plants that like those conditions. I enjoyed the challenges presented by the relationships of the cards in the tableau. The plant illustrations were beautiful
My favorite theme! So glad you did a video on this and wonderful to hear from Susannah. Glad you mentioned Evolution, I love Evolution: Climate. Oceans is also great. And Verdant is a beautiful game all about house plants!
My absolute favorite theme, plus I love when Susannah appears with you so this is a real treat!! So many great games were mentioned, both as selections and honorable mentions.
Wingspan, Parks, Everdell, Verdant, and Stardew Valley would be my top five. I own a lot of nature games but I think it’s not so much about the theme that we like but instead the kind of cozy, non-confrontational gameplay that normally accompanies nature games that my family enjoys so much.
I'll give a small nod to Photosynthesis. It's not nearly as complicated, intricate, or satisfying as a game like Ark Nova or Everdell, but it's still fun to see your trees use light to grow. The board ends up just looking really cool with all the various types of trees at different heights. There's also a fun strategy element where you need to decide when to harvest your tall trees. If you leave them, they help collect a lot of light and cast shadows on opponents. But the sooner you harvest them the more victory points you can earn, so it's a bit of a race. The rule book is also like 4 pages total, so it's a lighter game, meaning an easy teach to non-gamers. Finally, it has a decently interesting little moon and nighttime critter expansion. Not an epic game by any stretch, but I still enjoy it.
I call this Photosynthesis the aggressive tree game - lots of mean blocking and such, but that's how nature goes when it comes to growth so very appropriate and a good choice for a shout out!
I love nature, and I really want to try Meadow, Earth, and Ark Nova! I love the theme for Everdell too even if the gameplay connected with me less, I’d love to see a new game set in the Everdell world! Of course Wingspan is our cornerstone nature game and the game we come back to most often but I’m not sure I’ve played enough other nature themed games to come up with a list myself.
Great lists. I like that Susannah included Birdwatcher in her list, I feel like that game didn't get the attention it deserved, the artwork is stunning and the theme and gameplay work together really well. My top two are Wingspan and Ark Nova, with Cascadia, Parks, Mariposas, and Birdwatcher not too far behind and Earth, Trailblazer: the John Muir Trail, and Zoo Tycoon in the excited to play soon category. And in the upcoming but still a ways off category, I'm very curious about Undergrove, Elizabeth Hargrave's upcoming game.
I love nature themed games. Some I really enjoy that weren’t mentioned are Encyclopedia, Keystone: North America, Oceans, Summer Camp, Dominant Species, Lōtus, and the newest game; Trailblazer: The John Muir Trail I would mention Four Gardens, but it may be loosely considered nature. And if fantasy nature is allowed, I’d like to give an honorable mention to Bitokū.
Great lists, thanks guys! I feel like I don't have a good understanding of what the designer of Earth meant when they called the game "open world". Is it just that there are no constraints on adding to your tableau beyond simple resource cost? (For example there are no plants that say "You must have 2 trees in your tableau to plant this", or "This must be planted next to a card with rocky habitat") The other possible interpretations I've come up with would apply to a lot of games, and it felt like they were saying this is something that distinguishes Earth.
Having played the game, when I hear that I think they just meant that there are so many viable ways to earn points that the story of your island really is dictated by you and not by the game. Sure, some things may earn you more points - but often the point conditions aren't overly restrictive to prevent you from building the island you'd be proud of.
@@davidgreaves4525 That was my first thought, but to me Earth doesn't do this any better than other games with multifaceted scoring, and so it felt like too broad a category.
This is a good topic, but I was surprised to realize that I can't even come up with a top 5. I've played very few nature themed games, and some of the ones that are popular that I have played (Earth, Ecos, Parks) I strongly dislike. My best attempt at a top 5 has only 4 games, and one might be a stretch: Ark Nova, Wingspan, Cascadia, Dinosaur Island. I'm eager to try Three Sisters, but haven't yet.
Personally, I don't really get the fascination with Earth - it seems really overrated. Very abstract, the actions are all quite bland and just involve lots of little trades that don't excite too much. It's a fine game, like a 6/10 sort of game, but I don't agree with the multitude of glowing reviews
I just played it again last night and had a blast for all the reasons I mentioned in my video. It's okay not to agree with other peoples' opinions, but that doesn't mean the game is overrated--rather, it's rated exactly as people have rated it. Your experience is your own, just as other peoples' experiences are their own. :)
That's one of the reasons I dislike Earth - the actions are very same-y. Other than drawing new cards into your hand, which is exciting, the other actions are all just various ways to score 1 point - 1 point per sprout, 1 point per growth, 1 point per "composted" card. Each of these are also currency - some cards let you spend growth, or sprouts, or composted cards to accomplish something - so it's a lot of meaningless variation. But I think the main thing I dislike about Earth is that in a 4p game, 3 out of every 4 of your turns are determined by other players. Jamey has mentioned that as a strength of the game - there's no down time, you are always getting something. But I find it to be a major weakness of the game, because a majority of your performance is determined by other people's choices. (Sure, you can argue you chose the cards to play to benefit from others' actions, but it still feels like mostly guesswork to me.) But I know some people love this game of guessing what others are going to do, which is why games like Love Letter and Race For The Galaxy and Sheriff of Nottingham and Dixit are so popular. It's a me thing, I dislike all of those games!
Maybe overrated was the wrong word. I don’t understand the near-universal very high praise it gets though. It’s a fine game, just lacking any real stand-out qualities in my opinion.
@@jameystegmaier I really like this point. There are popular games I am lukewarm on as well, but just because I am less excited about a game than someone else doesn’t mean their experience is less valid than mine. I know game critics feel the need to speak louder to not get drowned out by the fans and I find myself tempted to bring such games up from time to time just to prove I’m not just jumping onto every bandwagon. I feel less targeted when I get flack for disliking a popular game than for liking a game someone else dislikes for some reason. But that shouldn’t be the point. I think it’s more useful if you can articulate to yourself what to didn’t like you can know what to look for in the future. I like to bring up Terraforming Mars sometimes not to be a contrarian but because I like Ares Expedition so much and I think there is something to be gleaned in that turnaround.
Perhaps a bit of a different spin on "nature" but I'd probably put Parks into this category. Sure, it's not directly about the plants or animals - but it's thematically about people spending quality time in nature (that is, going on hiking trips in national parks). The art is just so beautiful too - it's made me want to visit some of these parks that I hadn't even heard of!
I completely agree that Parks fits this category!
I just played Verdant last weekend. It's a tableau builder where you're trying to match the lighting conditions in the rooms of your house with plants that like those conditions. I enjoyed the challenges presented by the relationships of the cards in the tableau. The plant illustrations were beautiful
My favorite theme! So glad you did a video on this and wonderful to hear from Susannah.
Glad you mentioned Evolution, I love Evolution: Climate. Oceans is also great.
And Verdant is a beautiful game all about house plants!
Love the list and special guests :) I really need to try earth
My absolute favorite theme, plus I love when Susannah appears with you so this is a real treat!! So many great games were mentioned, both as selections and honorable mentions.
Thanks! I really appreciate Susannah joining me for this.
Great theme and video! I like a lot of the ones you mentioned esp Meadow, Earth and Ark Nova. Few I would add are Planet, Oceans, Cascadia and Kohaku
Wingspan, Parks, Everdell, Verdant, and Stardew Valley would be my top five. I own a lot of nature games but I think it’s not so much about the theme that we like but instead the kind of cozy, non-confrontational gameplay that normally accompanies nature games that my family enjoys so much.
I'll give a small nod to Photosynthesis. It's not nearly as complicated, intricate, or satisfying as a game like Ark Nova or Everdell, but it's still fun to see your trees use light to grow. The board ends up just looking really cool with all the various types of trees at different heights. There's also a fun strategy element where you need to decide when to harvest your tall trees. If you leave them, they help collect a lot of light and cast shadows on opponents. But the sooner you harvest them the more victory points you can earn, so it's a bit of a race. The rule book is also like 4 pages total, so it's a lighter game, meaning an easy teach to non-gamers. Finally, it has a decently interesting little moon and nighttime critter expansion.
Not an epic game by any stretch, but I still enjoy it.
I call this Photosynthesis the aggressive tree game - lots of mean blocking and such, but that's how nature goes when it comes to growth so very appropriate and a good choice for a shout out!
Came to give a shot out to photosynthesis, too. It's not on my top 5, but has the theme of nature in spades, so deserves an honorable shot out
I love nature, and I really want to try Meadow, Earth, and Ark Nova! I love the theme for Everdell too even if the gameplay connected with me less, I’d love to see a new game set in the Everdell world! Of course Wingspan is our cornerstone nature game and the game we come back to most often but I’m not sure I’ve played enough other nature themed games to come up with a list myself.
Great lists. I like that Susannah included Birdwatcher in her list, I feel like that game didn't get the attention it deserved, the artwork is stunning and the theme and gameplay work together really well. My top two are Wingspan and Ark Nova, with Cascadia, Parks, Mariposas, and Birdwatcher not too far behind and Earth, Trailblazer: the John Muir Trail, and Zoo Tycoon in the excited to play soon category. And in the upcoming but still a ways off category, I'm very curious about Undergrove, Elizabeth Hargrave's upcoming game.
I'm really curious about Undergrove too!
I love nature themed games. Some I really enjoy that weren’t mentioned are Encyclopedia, Keystone: North America, Oceans, Summer Camp, Dominant Species, Lōtus, and the newest game; Trailblazer: The John Muir Trail
I would mention Four Gardens, but it may be loosely considered nature.
And if fantasy nature is allowed, I’d like to give an honorable mention to Bitokū.
I just got Trailblazer and am curious to play it!
Hi Jamey, you appeared in my dreams last night 😃 We had a very nice talk 😃 Very funny, I never dreamed of you before. 😄
I'm glad we had a nice chat!
Great lists, thanks guys!
I feel like I don't have a good understanding of what the designer of Earth meant when they called the game "open world". Is it just that there are no constraints on adding to your tableau beyond simple resource cost? (For example there are no plants that say "You must have 2 trees in your tableau to plant this", or "This must be planted next to a card with rocky habitat") The other possible interpretations I've come up with would apply to a lot of games, and it felt like they were saying this is something that distinguishes Earth.
Having played the game, when I hear that I think they just meant that there are so many viable ways to earn points that the story of your island really is dictated by you and not by the game. Sure, some things may earn you more points - but often the point conditions aren't overly restrictive to prevent you from building the island you'd be proud of.
@@davidgreaves4525 That was my first thought, but to me Earth doesn't do this any better than other games with multifaceted scoring, and so it felt like too broad a category.
This is a good topic, but I was surprised to realize that I can't even come up with a top 5. I've played very few nature themed games, and some of the ones that are popular that I have played (Earth, Ecos, Parks) I strongly dislike. My best attempt at a top 5 has only 4 games, and one might be a stretch: Ark Nova, Wingspan, Cascadia, Dinosaur Island. I'm eager to try Three Sisters, but haven't yet.
I would include Keystone North America, Kohaku and Spirits of the forest
My Top 5:
1. Wingspan
2. Ark Nova
3. Cascadia
4. Living Forest
5. PARKS
HM: Habitats
Great list!
Where's So Clover?
Haha!
I really did think about adding it based on the name...but beyond that, it doesn't have a nature theme. :)
Personally, I don't really get the fascination with Earth - it seems really overrated. Very abstract, the actions are all quite bland and just involve lots of little trades that don't excite too much. It's a fine game, like a 6/10 sort of game, but I don't agree with the multitude of glowing reviews
I just played it again last night and had a blast for all the reasons I mentioned in my video. It's okay not to agree with other peoples' opinions, but that doesn't mean the game is overrated--rather, it's rated exactly as people have rated it. Your experience is your own, just as other peoples' experiences are their own. :)
That's one of the reasons I dislike Earth - the actions are very same-y. Other than drawing new cards into your hand, which is exciting, the other actions are all just various ways to score 1 point - 1 point per sprout, 1 point per growth, 1 point per "composted" card. Each of these are also currency - some cards let you spend growth, or sprouts, or composted cards to accomplish something - so it's a lot of meaningless variation. But I think the main thing I dislike about Earth is that in a 4p game, 3 out of every 4 of your turns are determined by other players. Jamey has mentioned that as a strength of the game - there's no down time, you are always getting something. But I find it to be a major weakness of the game, because a majority of your performance is determined by other people's choices. (Sure, you can argue you chose the cards to play to benefit from others' actions, but it still feels like mostly guesswork to me.) But I know some people love this game of guessing what others are going to do, which is why games like Love Letter and Race For The Galaxy and Sheriff of Nottingham and Dixit are so popular. It's a me thing, I dislike all of those games!
Maybe overrated was the wrong word. I don’t understand the near-universal very high praise it gets though. It’s a fine game, just lacking any real stand-out qualities in my opinion.
@@jameystegmaier I really like this point. There are popular games I am lukewarm on as well, but just because I am less excited about a game than someone else doesn’t mean their experience is less valid than mine. I know game critics feel the need to speak louder to not get drowned out by the fans and I find myself tempted to bring such games up from time to time just to prove I’m not just jumping onto every bandwagon. I feel less targeted when I get flack for disliking a popular game than for liking a game someone else dislikes for some reason.
But that shouldn’t be the point. I think it’s more useful if you can articulate to yourself what to didn’t like you can know what to look for in the future. I like to bring up Terraforming Mars sometimes not to be a contrarian but because I like Ares Expedition so much and I think there is something to be gleaned in that turnaround.