Ecologies: Ancient Areas – Prehistoric Food Web Strategy Game

Build an ecosystem that disappeared millions of years ago.

Ecologies: Ancient Areas takes the food-web strategy of Ecologies deep into the prehistoric past, challenging players to build healthy ecosystems using organisms known from the fossil record.

Across 7 extinct biomes, you'll encounter 78 unique organisms spanning geologic time from the Cambrian through the Paleogene. Build food webs, balance your ecosystems, and discover how dramatically life—and the relationships between living things—has changed across hundreds of millions of years.

Designed by a biology teacher and created in collaboration with an award-winning paleoartist, Ancient Areas draws from real paleontological science while using scientific reconstruction to imagine these long-vanished ecosystems.

The result is part strategy game, part journey through deep time—and a chance to build a food web where extinction has already spoiled the ending.

Build Through Deep Time

Create ancient food webs using organisms reconstructed from the fossil record.

Explore 7 extinct biomes, each representing a different period in Earth's geologic history.

Build healthy ecosystems by creating balanced relationships among the organisms in each biome.

Meet 78 unique organisms spanning from the Cambrian through the Paleogene.

Three Ways to Play

Standard Mode offers the complete strategic game for ages 12+.

Simplified Mode makes the game accessible to younger players ages 8+ with included simplified rules.

Single Player Mode lets you explore ancient ecosystems on your own.

Why We Love It

It makes deep time feel tangible. Instead of reading a timeline of prehistoric life, you're working directly with organisms and trying to understand how they might fit together within an ecosystem.

The science leaves room for what we don't know. Fossils give us evidence, but reconstructing an ancient ecosystem requires interpretation. We love that Ancient Areas is grounded in science without pretending the distant past left us a complete instruction manual.

The paleoart matters. Working with an award-winning paleoartist gives these extinct organisms scientifically informed visual lives rather than simply turning them into generic prehistoric monsters.

It’s a natural next step from Ecologies. The familiar food-web-building concept remains, but the organisms, biomes, and enormous sweep of geologic time create an entirely new ecological puzzle.

What’s Inside

108 cards
78 unique organisms
7 extinct biomes
Standard, Simplified & Single Player modes

Game Details

Players: 1–6
Age: 12+ with standard rules; 8+ with simplified rules
Play time: 60–90 minutes
Style: Food-web strategy card game
Focus: Prehistoric ecosystems, paleontology & ecology
Geologic range: Cambrian through Paleogene
Designed by: A biology teacher
Art: Created in collaboration with an award-winning paleoartist

Build the food web. Explore deep time. Try not to get too attached.