To maintain consistency across all pages, please follow the style guide as closely as possible.

General Requirements for Review and Revision

Please follow these guidelines when reviewing and revising your resource page.

• Double-check all hyperlinks.
• Italicize all game titles.
• Make sure punctuation is consistent throughout.
• Paragraphs should be no longer than 3-4 sentences.
• For images, be sure to include alt-text and embed a link to the source in the image. This can be done in the Display Settings of the image.

Game Title (Heading 2, italicized)

Use a soft return (shift + enter on Windows) for the items below to move to the next line. This is to reduce the amount of scrolling. If you do not have information for any of the items below, indicate this by adding “unknown.”

Created by: Name
Contributors: Names
Published by: Publisher, Year
Genre: (Pull from keyword list below)
Number of Players: 2-6 (Arabic numerals with connecting dash)
Play Time: 60 minutes (Arabic numerals followed by “minutes” or “hours”)

Keywords (Heading 3)

Keywords should be generic but useful. Provide a short list of 3-5 keywords from the master list at the bottom of this page. Separate each word with a comma. 

Example: Educational, card game, board game

Short Description (Heading 3)

Provide a 3-5 sentence paragraph summarizing the game’s theme, mechanics, and any other points that may help the audience determine if this is a game they would like to play. 

Be sure to italicize game titles throughout! 

Avoid or remove links beneath videos. Provide a clear, descriptive caption for all videos, images, and other media. Don’t forget your alt-text as well!

Themes

Nature, biology, evolution

Type

You may use additional keywords here
Example: Strategy, competitive, educational

Mechanics

You may use additional keywords here as well

Key Components

List pieces of the game as a bulleted list. Use broad categories to describe sets of pieces (ex., dice vs. four 6-sided dice).

• Cards
• Food screens
• Dino starter token
• Wooden markers
• Watering hole board
• Food tokens
• Species boards

Annotated Bibliography

This is an excellent example of an annotated bibliography in MLA style. Use this as a guide, and refer to our UWGB Library Guide on MLA usage for more guidance.

BoardGameGeek. “Evolution.” BoardGameGeek, https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/155703/evolution. 

This webpage describes Evolution as a game where players must “adapt their species in a dynamic ecosystem where food is scarce and predators lurk.” It gives examples of specific traits in the game, like Hard Shell, which protects from predators, and Long Neck, which provides access to hard-to-reach food. The webpage says Evolution has a surprising amount of variety for its simple rules, encouraging a variety of play styles — from reserved to offensive — with its different categories, like carnivore and herbivore. The webpage describes Evolution’s ecosystem as determined by the players, encouraging a unique playing experience each time.

Chuang, Angela, and Orlando Schwery. “Evolution Makes a Splash.” Science, Science Magazine, 6 Mar. 2020, https://www-science-org.ezproxy.uwgb.edu/doi/10.1126/science.aba9172. 

This article examines the newest addition to the Evolution game series, Oceans. According to the authors, the newest installment preserves the key elements of earlier editions, depicting the inherent trade-offs associated with certain feeding/hunting strategies. Oceans further explores the symbiotic relationships introduced in Evolution, where, for example, parasites and predators can harm both species, but a successful hunt can benefit both. According to the article, Oceans highlights the interconnected nature of life and relevance of keystone species — a single event can trigger cascading effects felt throughout the ecosystem, just like real life. 

Muell, Morgan R., et al. “Gaming Natural Selection: Using Board Games as Simulations to Teach Evolution.” Evolution, vol. 74, no. 3, 2020, pp. 681–85. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/48577330. Accessed 2 Apr. 2023.

This journal article describes Evolution as an excellent complement to introductory evolutionary theory, with relatively simple game play friendly to a variety of ages. The game explores the variety of triggers for evolution (as well as its inherent lack of foresight), from evolutionary arms races to interspecies interactions. The later edition, Evolution: Climate, adds complicating factors like environment, competition/predation, biological consequences of geologic and cosmic events, mass extinction, evolutionary and ecological physiology, and climate change, and the article concludes it is one of the best board games for teaching evolution, suited to high school and college students. According to the authors, the game “grossly convoluted the boundaries between intelligent design and natural selection,” but this was a purposeful and ultimately important decision by the game designers to provide agency to players, and triggered valuable insight from students.

North Star Game Studio. “Evolution.” North Star Games, https://www.northstargames.com/products/evolution. 

This webpage describes the purpose behind the game Evolution, while also introducing basic gameplay. It describes Evolution as an award-winning game for 2-6 players, where you can create a unique species with over 12,000 trait combinations and adapt in order to survive the constantly changing ecosystem. The webpage highlights that Evolution has been used in the evolutionary biology department at the University of Oxford and was featured in the world’s leading scientific journal, Nature. The webpage says that the game features a shared ecosystem with predators and limited food, an easy-to-learn but intricate system, strategic gameplay with multiple paths to victory, and replayability due to the variety of traits and ecosystems. This webpage promotes Evolution as a game that is both educational and enjoyable, with enough variety to make it a different experience each play-through.

West, Stuart. “Education: How to Win at Evolution.” Nature News, Nature Publishing Group, 9 Dec. 2015, https://www.nature.com/articles/528192a. 

According to Stuart West, Evolution focuses on adaptation and interspecies interactions. The gameplay is simple, but grows increasingly tactical as it progresses, and like real evolution, the best strategy depends on the choices of other players/species. For example, he says more herbivores means it’s beneficial to develop cooperation and more efficient foraging, but it also means there’s a big advantage to becoming a carnivore. West says the biology of Evolution is sophisticated, with a wide variety of traits driving gameplay. He considers it a useful teaching aid for ages 10 and up, and says it could help older students understand subjects like evolutionary arms races.

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Keyword List

Please select 3-5 keywords from this list for your guide. If you feel one needs to be included, please contact your instructor.

Themes

• Sustainability
• Science Fiction
• Fantasy
• Humorous
• Mystery
• Educational
• Historical

Genre

• Card game
• Board game
• Dice Game
• Party game

Mechanics

• Bluffing
• Roleplaying
• Memory
• Communication
• Storytelling
• Collaborative
• Cooperative
• Competitive
• Trading
• Trivia
• Strategy