- Version 1.0: Dorfromantik – the video game
- Dorfromantik – The Board Game
- For competitive players: Dorfromantik – The Duel
- Travel to New Lands: Dorfromantik – Sakura
- Expand your horizons: Mini-Expansions
Burbling rivers, rustling forests, wheat fields gently swaying in the breeze, and here and there a cozy little village – that’s Dorfromantik! The family game created by Michael Palm and Lukas Zach has been delighting the gaming community since 2022. Even more exciting is that the universe of this cooperative tile placement game continues to expand. Here’s a brief introduction and overview of the idyllic world of Dorfromantik.
Version 1.0: Dorfromantik – the video game
It all started in Berlin at Toukana Interactive, a small indie game developer founded by Luca Langenberg, Sandro Heuberger, Timo Falcke, and Zwi Zausch in 2020. They teamed up to develop Dorfromantik the video game as part of their Master’s degree program. Based on strategy and puzzle mechanics, the game invites you to design and build picturesque landscapes according to your own imagination. It encourages players to create a beautiful world they might love to escape to: bright yellow wheat fields and lush green forests as far as the eye can see, red-brick houses dotting the landscape, and here and there a meandering river or railway track. It may not be surprising to learn the game was developed in the bustling capital of Germany. The core idea behind Dorfromantik was to create a video game to help you relax and unwind—and from theme to gameplay, the vibe of Dorfromantik is one thing above all else: idyllic.
Dorfromantik – The Board Game
It wasn’t long before the game attracted the attention of game designers Lukas Zach and Michael Palm. Lukas Zach shared his thoughts about this in a recent interview: “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 worked. 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 was ultimately the board game aesthetic of the video game that gave rise to the idea of adapting it for the analogue world.
In a single-player game, such rural and peaceful gameplay is easy to create—nobody is going to break a spoke in your wheel or dig a ditch through your wheat field—but there‘s no reason to get agitated in Dorfromantik – The Board Game because the game is fully co-operative. All players work to create a picturesque landscape out of hexagonal tiles together, while also considering the population’s wishes that are revealed whenever drawing task tiles. Villagers might ask for a wheat field composed of exactly four tiles, a forest of six tiles, or a variety of other specific tasks.
Points will also be scored for the longest railroad tracks and rivers. Additional tile features, such as flags that need to be placed in completed areas, will also gain you extra points. Those points are the key to unlock the new game components and achievements found within five sealed boxes. Despite the peaceful gameplay, Dorfromantik – The Board Game always has new challenges in store for you, and if you work well together, you can beat your high score time and time again.
The board gaming community turned out to be just as delighted about the tranquil gameplay as the video gaming community: Dorfromantik – The Board Game was voted second place in the Deutsche Spiele Preises 2023 by the German-speaking gaming community, only three months after it won Spiel des Jahres 2023 (Game of the Year) by the Jury Spiel des Jahres.
If you’d rather unwind by yourself, or if your boardgame group simply cannot commit to a game night amidst the turbulence of everyday life, you can fully enjoy Dorfromantik – The Board Game as a solo game.
For competitive players: Dorfromantik – The Duel
Peaceful co-operation is the heart of Dorfromantik, but many of us are still tempted by a bit of peaceful rivalry. Dorfromantik – The Duel was developed to satisfy what fans of competitive games had been missing: direct competition for the most points.
You can compete against each other as two players or two teams in this stand-alone follow-up to the original cooperative game. Unlike its predecessor, there is no unlockable content in Duel. Instead, two new task types have been added along with two optional modules that encourage greater interaction and provide even more variety of gameplay.
The first new task type, a wraparound task, requires an arrangement of a particular number of specific tiles around the original task tile before it is completed. The second new type, a double task, displays two types of landscape. As soon as one of the two regions consists of exactly six tiles, you will score the task tile.
The new modules can be added to your game either individually or together. Module 1 adds task cards that score bonus points for landscapes of a certain size. Module 2 introduces points of interest to make your landscape even more idyllic. Once you have completed a certain number of tasks, you may choose a special objective and collect additional points with hearts, a photographer, the school, the granary, and an old Oak.
With two copies of Dorfromantik – The Duel, you can organize even larger games with three or four players competing.
Travel to New Lands: Dorfromantik – Sakura
Everyone who enjoyed the co-operative gameplay of Dorfromantik – The Board Game can celebrate as the next stand-alone successor to the hit game returns to the peaceful coop experience of the original game. Dorfromantik – Sakura transports players to an entirely new region inspired by the Japanese landscape, with fresh splashes of color and an entirely new visual design. Instead of railroad tracks, you construct roads in Dorfromantik – Sakura. The wheat fields and green forests have been replaced by rice fields and pink cherry trees, and once you unlock cherry blossoms, a completely new element will be added to the game to help you progress through the campaign.
Once again, the aim is to create a beautiful landscape by working together, while also fulfilling the requests of the villagers. This entirely new campaign has six sealed boxes ready to explore, the contents of which you can use to unlock more than 40 achievements. Numerous new special tiles will also help you push your personal high score even higher and higher.
Expand your horizons: Mini-Expansions
The world of Dorfromantik – The Board Game is full of surprises, and in October 2023, players were introduced to the first Mini-Expansion, the Great Mill. Mini-Expansions add new unlockable achievements to any campaign and allow for even more ways to try and score points. With the Great Mill, players can score extra points for completed grain tasks through skillful placement of the acrylic Mill marker. It is a small addition, but as any player of Dorfromantik knows, every point helps!
With the Wetterau mini-expansion (available separately since June 2024), you can also add three new special tiles with new rules to the game – and a little regional flair of the Wetterau, home of Pegasus Spiele.
