- Countryside Idyll and Spiel des Jahres
- Interview with Dorfromantik – The Board Game Authors Lukas Zach and Michael Palm
- Interview with Video Game Studio Toukana Interactive
Countryside Idyll and Spiel des Jahres
On July 16th, Dorfromantik – The Board Game was announced as Spiel des Jahres 2023 (Game of the Year). The peaceful, cooperative, tile placement game has excited the board game community since October 2022. That is not surprising because the game shines as players cooperatively build a landscape which results in a countryside idyll, a world without conflict—burbling rivers, rustling forests, wheat fields swaying in the wind, and here and there a cute little village. In fact, there is technically no winning or losing and this practically makes the game a meditative experience.
Nevertheless, Dorfromantik – The Board Game is quite challenging! You continually try to fulfill the requests of the townspeople while also creating the longest river and railway possible. At the end of every play, no matter the final score, you make progress along a campaign track which gradually unlocks new game components, tiles, and achievements to attempt. These new challenges provide incentive to try and surpass your own high score over and over again.
Designers Lukas Zach and Michael Palm have worked with Pegasus Spiele for more than 20 years, designing titles such as The Dwarves, Wizardry to the Power of Three, Bookworm – The Card Game and many others. We are delighted that they won their first Spiel des Jahres with Dorfromantik – The Board Game, but so too the entire Toukana Interactive Team, original designers of the video game Dorfromantik on which the board game is based. We’re glad to say that Lukas, Michael, and the members of Toukana happily accepted our request to pepper them with questions.
Interview with Dorfromantik – The Board Game Authors Lukas Zach and Michael Palm
Michael, Lukas, congratulations on the outstanding success of Dorfromantik – The Board Game, and for the Spiel des Jahres 2023 award! Please tell us, how did you feel during the days leading up to the announcement and the moment it was finally revealed that Dorfromantik – The Board Game had won this prestigious award?
Lukas: “We were super nervous and excited. We were treated as a favorite, which does not calm you down; the opposite actually. Sometimes there are surprises. The fact that we were the last ones to receive an award that evening did not make it any easier. The moment of the announcement was a total relief, boundless cheers and pure happiness.”
Michael: “I can only agree. And we have been on cloud 307 ever since. We still cannot totally comprehend it.”
Why did you choose to adapt Dorfromantik to a board game? Are you fans of the video game?
Lukas: “Dorfromantik caught my eye because it was nominated for the Deutsche Computerspielepreis (German PC Game Award) along with the video game Iron Harvest by KING Art, where I work. It made me curious and I checked the game out. I realized, like probably many people did, that it felt pretty board-game-ish. It also was similar to a hexagonal tile placement game set in the south seas that we had been working on for several years. We connected the dots and asked Andreas Finkernagel from Pegasus Spiele to reach out to Toukana. Next, we worked intensely on a digital prototype to play with Toukana as soon as possible, hoping to convince them. Luckily, it worked out. We liked each other immediately upon meeting, and the cooperation is still very fun.”
How easy was it to adapt the video game into a board game?
Michael: “Of course the computer game’s similarity to a board game is obvious. The adaptation needed to incorporate changes and new approaches as you might expect, because the computer can change tiles graphically when they are placed, keep the tasks arranged in the order of difficulty, automatically track the number of trees in each forest, and much more. The challenge we faced was to create a board game that did not need much administration while playing, where you only needed to calculate points at the end of the game.”
You already mentioned that you developed the board game in collaboration with Toukana Interactive. How did the cooperation go?
Michael: “We met online and presented Toukana our first prototype using a digital game table. We immediately realized that we would all get along well. During that first execution, they could already feel the atmosphere we wanted to convey with Dorfromantik. After many playtesting sessions, we had our first meeting in person at the SPIEL board game fair in Essen and formed a friendly collaboration that will probably bear more fruits.”
An important aspect of Dorfromantik – The Board Game is the cooperative experience of everyone playing together towards a common goal. The recently announced Dorfromantik – The Duel takes a different path. How did that come about?
Michael: “The duel version is a nice contrast to the original Dorfromantik – The Board Game. Everyone that has been missing competitiveness so far can now prove themselves. It stays peaceful in the romantic village though. 😉“
Could you tell us a little bit more about the new duel version? Along with the competitiveness, what else is different?
Lukas: “In our opinion, purely cooperative games need new impulses from the outside, such as a campaign that unlocks new tiles, so they continue to be played often. In the duel version we do not have a campaign, but instead added two modules that require players to consider their gameplay more carefully. These modules will introduce new challenges even for Dorfromantik pros.”
In Dorfromantik – The Duel, there are two new types of tasks that can be played with Dorfromantik – The Board Game. Does that make the game more complex or more challenging?
Michael: “We think so. One of the two new tasks is flexible, but flexibility adds options, which therefore makes the game more complex. The second task will keep players weighing their options because the task can be complete using any tile, regardless of the displayed landscape. We believe players will enjoy both new task types.”
Thank you Michael and Lukas for your answers!
Interview with Video Game Studio Toukana Interactive
Now let’s learn even more about the original video game, and the coexistence of both board and digital versions, from Toukana Interactive.
You have probably heard this question a lot but would you give us some insight into the development of Dorfromantik? Did you have any inspiration?
Toukana Interactive: “We would love to! We created Dorfromantik as part of our Master in Game Design at the University of Applied Sciences in Berlin. We, that is Luca Langenberg, Sandro Heuberger, Timo Falcke, and Zwi Zausch. After finishing our bachelor degrees, we had the idea to found our indie studio Toukana Interactive and to establish ourselves in the field with minimalistic, inviting games. Coincidentally, the new master course got introduced that laid down the perfect base for us to concentrate on our plan. Dorfromantik was our first project. The basic idea was to create a calm and creative tile placement game where players could relax. We wanted that an idyllic and colorful landscape would be created from the players’ own imaginations. Regarding the design, we took inspiration from art from the romantic age and impressionism, as well as classic board games. We released the game in March 2021 as an early-access-title on Steam and GOG, kept improving it and then released the full version in April 2022.”
Dorfromantik has been tremendously successful – how did that feel at the beginning, versus today?
Toukana Interactive: “Of course we were very overwhelmed when we saw how many people were playing and enjoying our game. Even though we had been trying to prepare the release with a lot of marketing, we did not expect it to be such a success. After the release, we got a lot of positive feedback and constructive criticism that helped us improve the game during the early access phase and add new features. We made a lot of new contacts in the gaming industry and learned from other developers. A really special moment for us was when we received nominations and awards for our game, such as the Deutsche Computerspielpreis 2021 (German computer game award 2021) for the best debut and best game design, and the Deutsche Entwicklerpreis 2021 (German developer award 2021) for the best German game. That proved to us that we created something special. We are very grateful for the support of the players, our families, our friends, and our sponsors. We had so much fun with our work and have a lot of new ideas and plans for the future. We hope that we can make you happy with our games for a long time to come.”
How did the collaboration with Pegasus Spiele, Michael, and Lukas happen? What was most important to you regarding the adaptation?
Toukana Interactive: “It was a wonderful coincidence that such experienced board game authors as Michael and Lukas, along with Pegasus Spiele, contacted us and asked: ‘Hey, we have a board game design that would fit perfectly with Dorfromantik, do you want to take a look?’ Of course, we were immediately interested because we are big board game fans. We liked it instantly. Dorfromantik – The Board Game is an adaptation of our video game as a cooperative landscape-tile placement game for multiple players. It was important to us that the relaxed and creative atmosphere, as well as the fresh design of our video game, transferred over while adding new challenges and opportunities for the players.”
Did (and do) you play the board game?
Toukana Interactive: “We played the prototype in the very beginning with Michael and Lukas and have been hooked ever since. We love to play it with our families and friends.”
Dorfromantik is a very relaxing, maybe even meditative, single-player experience. Although the board game can be played solo, it is a cooperative game supporting up to six players. Dorfromantik – The Duel does not have a solo mode. What do you like about the multiplayer options? Are you considering expanding the digital original in a similar way?
Toukana Interactive: “It is interesting how our gaming concept works in different formats and for different target audiences. The Board Game and The Duel offer the possibility to enjoy Dorfromantik with other people, to discuss and share advice, or to compete. We like this social component a lot because it adds a new layer to the game experience. We were thinking whether it was possible to add a multiplayer mode to the digital original, but on a technical and game design level it is not easy to realize. We would need to design both a server infrastructure and write network code. As we are a small developer team, we choose to focus on the single player mode with online high score and leaderboards to offer the best possible gaming experience.”
You won multiple awards with Dorfromantik. How does it feel that the board game adaptation won Spiel des Jahres, the most important board game award in the world?
Toukana Interactive: “We are very happy about it! It was the cherry on top! We were already overwhelmed with the nomination and it was suspenseful when the winner was announced. We are especially happy for Michael and Lukas because we think they really deserve the award.”
The release of Dorfromantik – The Duel means there will be more than one Dorfromantik board game. How do you feel about this expansion of the Dorfromantik world?
Toukana Interactive: “It is amazing for us to see that Dorfromantik is becoming more than our digital game. We think the world of Dorfromantik offers many more possibilities to expand and address different gaming tastes. We were very happy when Michael and Lukas showed us the competitive prototype pretty much right after Dorfromantik – The Board Game was finished. The Duel is a competitive variant of our game in which two players or teams compete to try and score the most points. It addresses the only criticism that we received from fans of competitive games: that the cooperative version does not deliver enough tension. Dorfromantik – The Duel is the perfect answer to that criticism, and resulted in a very, very good game! As a team we played quite a few games and are convinced it will give board game fans and families countless hours of exciting play.”
Thank you for your answers – we look forward to many great game ideas from you in the future!
