Animals Come to Earth In Latest From Inside Up Games

The board game "Earth" has been a massive hit since it came onto the scene just a few years ago. The game's tableau-building mechanism and simultaneous play are the work of designer Maxime Tardif.

PHOTO courtesy of Inside Up Games.

Inside Up Game's Conor McGoey joined Table Talk on Saturday to discuss the expansion "Animal Kingdom" launching on Kickstarter on Tuesday, April 22nd. McGoey says part of Earth's success is that it is a very postive game"

"There's nothing negative, you know, there's no attacking, there's no destroying, there's no losing the game because someone was mean to you. It's really about everybody getting a lot of good and how well can you play with all of that goodness."

PHOTO courtesy of Inside Up Games.

He says it has been by far Inside Up's most popular game, and the first expansion, "Abundance," has been getting to crowdfunding backers over the last few weeks. "Animal Kingdom" will add 36 tarot-sized animal cards and matching silk-screened animeeples to the game.

PHOTO courtesy of Inside Up Games.

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PHOTO courtesy of Inside Up Games.

Players will get to choose one animal at the start of the game and then activate its ability up to five times during the course of gameplay. McGoey says the animals add to the overall decision-making of "Earth."

"It plays into the puzzly aspect of Earth of how do I want to build this, how do I want to set things u,p how can I maximize the use of this animal either for its conversion of resources or its victory point conditions."

McGoey says one animal will be drawn from the deck at the beginning of the game as well, and on the back side of the card is a global ability that will trigger for all players throughout the game.

PHOTO courtesy of Inside Up Games.

He says "Animal Kingdom" can be used with the "Abundance" expansion and both mini-expansions, "Weather" and "Calendar." McGoey then revealed a surprise for the "Animal Kingdom" campaign to Table Talk:

"There's actually one new one (expansion) which not many people know about right now called the "Disasters" module which we will be offering on the Kickstarter as well, and they are all created so that they can work symbiotically."

PHOTO courtesy of Inside Up Games.

McGoey says the "Disasters" pack will add some "take that" to the game which is why designer Maxime Tardif wanted to add it to the campaign as an add on so players who want to add the "take that" aspect to the game can, and those who don't can leave it out.

PHOTO courtesy of Inside Up Games.

We also discussed how the China Tariffs are affecting the board game world and if Inside Up had any discussions about delaying the launch of "Animal Kingdom" because of them. McGoey says they did have a lot of conversations around the tariffs, but they wanted to keep the launch on Earth Day, and they will hold off on closing the pledge manager and delay the charges within the pledge manager to allow for time for the tariff issue to clear up. They hope that six to eight months down the road, things will calm down.

James Paul Correia Photography

The show closed out with some fun banter between Conor, co-host William Pankratz, and me on whether "Earth" could be considered a space game because technically, the Earth is in outer space. You can catch Table Talk every other Saturday at 8:10 a.m. on WJON opposite the Woods Garden Show.

PHOTO courtesy of Inside Up Games.