Adapt or Die

Adapt is a simple game about habitat fitness. Adapt is very simple to play, it consists of moving a piece around the board and selecting habitats and adaptation cards when the opportunity arises.

There are opportunities for strategies and for competitive moves, although they are not easy to predict and often fail (as with true evolutionary adaptation strategies).

The game takes 20-30 minutes to play. Target age is 9+.

The game does require a fair amount of simple addition at the end (see this sample score sheet), and there is an online calculator (and there will be an app for those who prefer) to help the arithmetically-challenged (or lazy).

Anyone interested in play-testing this game, here is a complete set of images of the play-test rules, cards, board, habitats. You have to print out and cut out all the cards, but it is all there. BTW, the cards are printed such that they align with the Avery name badges card stock. You can get it from Amazon using the search 'avery name badges'.

Here are links to some current documents and images for background about the game.

• Rules
• Game board: current test-play board
• Sample adaptation cards
• Sample creature cards
• Sample habitat cards. There is one to correspond to each habitat showing the selection pressures for that habitat. (5 copies of each for the 5 players)
• Habitat mats

Art needed

The art needed for this game is described below, with current examples. The goal of the art is to suggest the habitat concepts with beautiful art, and cards, board, and box cover with some common style.

Images on cards

There are 16 CREATURE cards. Each has the same set of features (leg length, # sections, size, eye precision, antennae precision) and different values or strengths of each. Ideally, if not too difficult, each image should in some way illustrate the feature combination. At the moment, I show the habitat that it is best adapted for, its 'home' habitat. The number also indicates this, and the number should be sufficient if the image can be a creature image.

There are 25 ADAPTATION cards. Each has a different combination of the 5 adaptations (leg length, # sections, size, eye precision, antennae precision), allowing the player to alter their creature to fit their habitats better.

There are 16 NICHE cards. Each NICHE has a set of 5 selection pressures (matching the creature adaptations). Images and numbering should match the habitat mats. The game will include 5 copies of each, because all players can choose the same habitats (and get the same NICHE card).

All cards are assumed to be standard 'poker deck' size (63 x 88 mm), but can actually be any size. Here is a list of all sizes available.

Here are example play-test cards.

• CREATURES
• ADAPTATION
• NICHE cards

The images on these cards are just concept images.

Background image for the rules

The rulebook (5" x 8" -- 127mm x 203mm) will have an image in the background on every page (same image for all pages). This can be anything giving the idea of the game, but at least should match the style of the images used in the game. It will be reduced contrast so that the print stands out.

Box cover

The box dimensions are not set yet, they will depend on the board, probably 10.75" x 10.75". The cover can be anything but should at least work well with the style of the card images. It can be one of the habitats, to save cost, or a collage of them.

The game board

The current plan is to use a 10-inch (254mm) square mat (the sample board is 8x8in, but better with 10x10in) with simple pathways from the center (4 steps to each edge), and 4 steps between adjacent habitat locations. This is just an example. The board is extended with the habitat cards (each 100mm square) during play, placed on a side of the basic board. The board needs to have 8 indicated locations on the edges of the board for the 8 habitat mats.

Habitat Mats

There are 16 habitat mats, and these can be anything. Each should represent in general a different type of environment or habitat such as temperate forest, high mountains, shallow ocean, ocean floor, savannah, tundra, freshwater, jungle, swamp, desert. Each is numbered, and the number should correspond to the creatures and to the NICHE cards.

Each mat is a 100 mm square (1275px x 1275px).

This link shows some images of interesting environments.