Dominic Crapuchettes takes us from the nebulous deep sea to a modern card game in less than six million years

Words by Owen Duffy

In 2014, US publisher North Star Games released the card game Evolution. A tight, elegant design, it saw players guide the development of different species, starting with a few inauspicious microbes and ending up with a menagerie of creatures, from furry burrowing mammals to armour-plated giants and ravenous predators.

The result was a game that managed that appealed to hobby players while remaining accessible for more casual audiences, and in the years since its release it has even been used in science classes to teach the principles of evolutionary theory.

We spoke to its designer, Dominic Crapuchettes, about its creation – a story of exhaustive research, tireless design and a near-disaster aboard an Arctic fishing boat.

FROM THE SEA

Like most designers, Crapuchettes traces his interest in games back to his childhood. Gaming was his main form of entertainment from an early age, and even during his schooldays, he was already working on ideas for games of his own.

“My family didn’t watch much TV,” he recalls. “Our TV was tiny, black & white, and had horrible reception. We played board games three or four times a week instead. I have early memories of at least a hundred board games – I don’t think that’s an exaggeration. They included the normal Hasbro games, chess, charades, spades, Dictionary, which was later released as Balderdash, Acquire, Diplomacy, Civilization, and Dungeons & Dragons. I still have copies of several games that I designed when I was 11. When I was 13, one of my games was banned from school because too many students played it during class. I’m still immensely proud of that fact.

“The only job that seemed interesting to me in high school was the idea of starting a board game company. In my junior year, I started working on several board games and a role-playing system, and in my senior year I wrote a business plan for a board game publisher as my final economics paper. At the time, board games and sports were my favourite form of entertainment because the participants were actively engaged in decisions that affected the outcome. Back then I thought watching TV was passive and boring.

“I was introduced to German games in 1998, just after taking second place at a Magic: Te Gathering Pro Tour event. I took an immediate liking to them because my girlfriend enjoyed them. We played board games every Sunday morning over breakfast with another couple for several years. Princes of Florence, Settlers of Catan, Tikal, Elfenland, Puerto Rico and Carcassonne were among my favourites. I loved the simple rules, the quality wooden components, the interesting themes, and especially the fact that I could get my friends to play.”