What EVERDELL taught me about Board Game Design | Hall of Fame

Everdell is the first entry in my Game Design Hall of Fame.
Build a city full of industrious woodland creatures. Shops, schools; courthouses; theatres - it’s a snapshot of a thriving community. And of course, each of these buildings DOES something: the farms generate berries; the mine produces pebbles; and the resin refinery refines… well, resin. Each of these constructions potentially houses a cute little critter: the bat historian lives in the clock tower; the postal pigeon occupies the post office; the badger inn-keeper takes up residence at the inn. And so we see our woodland valley develop through four seasons, sending out workers, gathering resources, exploiting the unique abilities of their constructions and critters to maximise production, and ultimately generating victory points to determine the most successful woodland civilization.
Everdell was released to much acclaim in 2018, and followed by a series of expansions.