Wingspan

A competitive bird-collection engine-building game that somehow made ornithology cool. Players attract birds to wildlife preserves by playing cards with real species data, beautiful illustrations by Natalia Rojas and Ana Maria Martinez Jaramillo, and unique powers based on actual bird behavior. Wingspan sold over a million copies in its first year and proved that a game about birds — designed by a first-time designer, Elizabeth Hargrave — could dominate a hobby historically focused on medieval warfare.