After millions of years of wasteland on earth, animal life finally begins to develop. But the world is still under construction and under constant change. Only those who can adapt to the ever-changing conditions and situations will survive to leave their mark on history.

Darwin’s Choice is a strategic card game for 2-6 players, which is fully dedicated to evolution. The game mechanics behind Darwin’s Choice require tactical/strategic thinking and give you a good understanding of evolution. But first and foremost, it is great fun.

With a total of 190.434 CHF and 3.284 Backers, Darwin’s Choice is the most successful Swiss board/card game on Kickstarter.

Darwin’s Choice contains 273 cards, 187 cardboard chips, a box and a rule book. The basic version of the game is available in German and English.

The cards of Darwin’s Choice (sizes: 75x50mm; 100x65mm) will have 300gsm blackcore quality. Box and chips are made of 2mm grey cardboard. The rule book is printed on high quality gloss paper. 

It is particularly important to us that only wood from FSC-certified sources is used for all game components (incl. box and rule book), i.e. the wood comes from sustainable forestry.

The core elements of Darwin’s Choice are the vegetation zones and the animal cards. All vegetation zones have an individual food supply and different requirements to fulfill.

The objective for each player is to create animal species that are as optimally adapted as possible. Only these can obtain enough food for themselves in the vegetation zones, which is crucial for their survival.

Between the eras played, vegetation zone changes plus effects of event cards transform the prevailing conditions. Using sophisticated mutations, players can improve already established animal species or save endangered species from extinction.

Next to mutations, players may also move their animal species to other vegetation zones to ensure their survival or even establish the species at the top of the food chain.

Throughout the game, players try to collect as many Darwin points as possible with their most adaptable and strongest animal species. But they have to stay focussed until the very end. If a species dies out, then all but one of its obtained Darwin points are lost.

Everything you need to know about the rules of Darwin’s Choice can be found here, in our rules explanation video and in the rule book.

With a click on the yellow banner below you will find the English and German rules for Darwin’s Choice.  

Our declared goal (also see Language Stretch Goals) is the professional translation of Darwin’s Choice into as many additional languages as possible.  

Please note that the rules are not yet in latest design (reason: this is very cost intensive). The final game issued, however, will contain a professionally designed layout for the rules. The text ratio then will be significantly lower, along with many more graphical elements and explanatory images.

Watch Phil, Samuel and Marc demonstrate a full game of Darwin’s Choice. They are clearly having a lot of fun.

Darwin’s Choice was shipped to persons in 14 countries around the globe. We hope that each of you can find a reviewer whom you trust, and who can describe Darwin’s Choice in your own language.  

As soon as a review/preview is online, we will link it here with our Kickstarter campaign.  

We have offered a small expense allowance to only 6 reviewers. These previews are marked with an asterisk *. Note however, that we have never paid for a positive opinion. Thus, each reviewer may freely express his opinion on our game.

The idea for Darwin’s Choice originally came from Marc, who is a huge animal enthusiast and therefore always had the dream of developing a game with animals. After a conversation with Samuel over a cup of tea, the basic game mechanics behind Darwin’s Choice were born. Marc then created the first prototype with printing paper and chips from other board games. In countless test games Darwin’s Choice was improved and optimized. New ideas found their way into the game, while others were dropped. In addition to internal test games, Marc and Samuel drove the prototypes all over Switzerland visiting over 15 game clubs and festivals. The feedback gained was intensively discussed during return journeys with best ideas and concepts finding their way into the game. After numerous prototypes and game versions, we are hereby proud to present the final version of Darwin’s Choice. We hope that you and your fellow players will enjoy it as much as we do.

Rozenn Grosjean is a French freelance illustrator and the genius behind all of the artworks in our game, Darwin’s Choice. Over months she has by hand lovingly illustrated all the cards, chips, icons and of course our unique box cover. Each stretch goal achieved means that even more wonderful illustrations by Rozenn will be integrated into the game, and that we will work with her for several more months.  

The cooperation with Rozenn was excellent and we all had a lot of fun. Her professionalism, reliability and flexibility impressed us very much. We could not consider ourselves happier, and can warmly recommend a cooperation with her to everyone. If you wish to follow Rozenn on social media or contact her about a collaboration, please find all relevant information on Rozenn’s website (yellow banner below).