Canopy: Evergreen – Interview with the Designer

gamesreviews.com:

Canopy Evergreen is a really cool card drafting and set collection experience where you will be planting and growing trees on your own personal board. The experience and components look fantastic, so we were instantly intrigued! We asked designer Tim Eisner a few questions about the game, check them out below! You can check Canopy Evergreen kickstarter page as well for additional details.

Canopy: Evergreen is a rainforest growing game set in the Pacific Northwest. Players collect a mix of plants, wildlife, weather and tree cards to grow a bountiful rainforest. It features a unique card drafting mechanism, set collection and growable 3D trees. It draws a lot of inspiration from both 7 Wonders and Sushi Go with the added spatial element of the trees and unique abilities from wildlife.

I started with the drafting mechanism, which I originally learned as a 2 player drafting variant for Magic: The Gathering. In this style of draft you have a chance to look at up to three card piles each turn, but each time you pass a pile you add a card to it. This had a very organic feel to it and made me think of growing things. I was at the same time becoming increasingly concerned about climate change and it seemed like a great idea to make a game about rainforests.

I think the answer is two-fold. First, the success of Wingspan, by Elizabeth Hargrave showed that the theme of nature games is very accessible. Secondly, I think nature games offer players and designers a connection with the nature world that is sorely lacking in our highly digitized age. I think we may be approaching peak nature game and that other genres and themes will likely come to the forefront, but as a designer I always love be inspired by the natural world in my