Niche Demo

Evolution is much more complex than people realize, which is why it’s so easy to be a skeptic and reject it without giving it too much thought. However, nature works its magic in spite of anyone’s opinion on the matter. Luck has a lot to do with it as well, given the fact that certain mutations are not exactly programmed by nature, they just happen to prove useful and help a particular individual survive much easier.

Niche is a digital board game about biology, evolution and survival, plus a bit of turn-based strategy added for taste. It’s a unique mix in certain regards, although one can obviously notice the similarities with Spore. Granted, it’s actually nothing like Spore in regards to gameplay, but some concepts are very much alike. On the other hand, the key idea in Niche is survival, because everything else plays an auxiliary role in the grand scheme of things.

As such, your goal is to help a tribe of animals survive in harsh conditions and use genetics to improve their survival chances. You have to search for mates, deal with predators and always have food, otherwise you die in a couple of turns. You are rewarded with genetics points every time you achieve something noteworthy, such as exploring a certain number of tiles or surviving for a whole month.

Whether you add some horns to increase your strength and damage or you develop claws that are more efficient at picking berries, each upgrade makes it easier to make the most out of the environment. The animals you meet are randomly generated, on the other hand, so there might be situations where you are not able to make use of carnivorous food supplies and are doomed to starve to death.

The randomness is actually pretty annoying, because it’s not as refined as it should be at the moment. Granted, this is nothing but an early demo to provide us with a look at the concept, but the gameplay needs to be seriously redesigned in order to keep players from getting too frustrated. There are times when you won’t even manage to find a berry bush at all, while other times disease basically kills you in a few turns and there’s no way to retaliate.

Niche has a shot at greatness, and it actually features some new and innovative ideas for a change. It obviously needs some work in order to shine, but the foundation is quite solid. Hence, you can show your support for the developers by contributing to their Kickstarter campaign.