141 – Joe Hopkins, Endangered – The Family Gamers Podcast

Let’s talk to Joe Hopkins, the designer of Endangered. Endangered is on Kickstarter right now. Published by Grand Gamers Guild, with art by Beth Sobel and Ben Flores, we think it looks great!

In keeping with the theme of the game, the Grand Gamers Guild is partnering with the Center for Biological Diversity. One of the pledge levels allows you to donate a copy for educational purposes. They’re also raising money based on “thumbs” on BoardGameGeek. The Center is also helping them ensure the game scenarios fit with real life conservation.

Marc Specter did an interview on Grand Rapids local news.

As of air time, the Kickstarter is not fully funded yet, although it’s close. The core game is $50 plus shipping. $55 with all the Kickstarter exclusives, and more from there.

Endangered uses worker placement & dice placement. It’s got a similar complexity to Pandemic. HOWEVER – one of the stretch goals is a family version, which simplifies and shortens the game to make it suitable for kids ages 6-10.

Although the primary mechanic is dice placement, there are a lot of other decisions going on. Endangered addresses real world threats that a specific species faces. You must convince the UN to pass a resolution that will protect the species (specific to the scenario). If you run out of habitat, or all the animals die, or run out of time, you’ll lose. Keep managing all of those issues while continuing to move toward getting the species protected!

Roll your dice and put them onto a space to do that action. Since this is a cooperative game, multiple people CAN use the same action, but only if they can place dice with a higher value than the dice already placed.

The core game is two scenarios: protect the tigers, or protect the sea otters.

Characters: Zoologist, Philanthropist, Lobbyist, TV Wildlife Host.

We love the educational opportunities presented by this game. It shows the multi-faceted approach to actually preserving species. Not a simple task! Each card gives flavor text that talks about how the concepts work in real life. We particularly love the country cards – done by graphic designer Josh Cappel (of Kids Table Board Gaming). The country conditions are not particularly thematic, though.

What kinds of games do you like to play with your son?

Cooperative and meaty euro games. “Long and arduous”. Together, play Memoir ’44, Ticket to Ride, Smallworld, and a flicking game called Pew-Pew that Joe designed.

Find Joe online:

@avgjoegames on Twitter
Email: joehopkinsgames@gmail.com
JoeMagicMan on BoardGameGeek

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 23:09 — 15.9MB)

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