Dorfromantik

Dorfromantik is a city-building puzzle video game developed and published by Toukana Interactive. In the game, players need to place hexagonal tiles of various biomes to create a idyllic landscape. The game was released in March 2021 for Windows via early access.

Dorfromantik
Developer(s)Toukana Interactive
Publisher(s)Toukana Interactive
EngineUnity
Platform(s)Microsoft Windows
Release
Genre(s)Puzzle, city-building
Mode(s)Single-player

Gameplay

The game involves placing hexagonal tiles that contain a combination of one or more of the following land uses, forest, barren, village, water, railroad, and field, with one land use along each side. The game begins with a barren tile and 40 new but random tiles to be placed.[1] New tiles can be rotated before placing and must touch at least one side to an existing tile, once placed the tile cannot be moved. Both water and railroad tiles have to connect to already placed water or railroad if the tile is placed next to an existing water or railroad tile, limiting the possible orientation and adding further complexity to the game.[2] Points are awarded for connecting the same land uses, special quests that involve creating an area of the same land use of a certain size, for example 10 field, and closing off an area to that land use, for example closing a forest so no new forest can be attached. Additional tiles are awarded for completing quests, closing areas, and for matching every side of a tile to the same land use on the surrounding tiles.[3] The game ends when the player runs out of tiles.[4]

A creative mode was added into the game in August 2021, allowing players to construct cities and villages with an infinite amount of tiles.[5]

Development

Dorfromantik was developed by four German students studying at HTW Berlin (Luca Langenberg, Sandro Heuberger, and Zwi Zausch, and Timo Falcke). The four founded an independent studio named Toukana Interactive to work on the game. The four students began developing prototypes for their game during a game jam at Ludum Dare in April 2020, with the idea of Dorfromantik, which translates into "village romanticization", being one of them. The tiles featured in the game were inspired by board games, while the game's art style was influenced by both landscape paintings and photography.[6]

The game was released via early access on March 25, 2021.[7] While the 1.0 version of the game was initially set to be released in mid or late 2021, the release date was later pushed to early 2022 as the team needed more time to release new content prior to the game's official launch.[8] The game was released in full on April 28, 2022.[9] A Nintendo Switch version is not currently in development, despite earlier indications of such.[10][11]

Reception

Dorfromantik received generally positive reviews when it was released via early access.[15] For the full release, the game received "generally favorable" reviews according to review aggregator Metacritic.[12]

Accolades
Year Award Category Result Refs
2021 23rd Independent Games Festival Awards Best Student Game Nominated [16]
German Computer Games Award Best Family Game Nominated [17]
Best Game Design Won
Young Talent Award Best Debut Won

References
  1. Loveridge, Sam (December 17, 2021). "Have you tried… a city builder without the chaos of, well, cities in Dorfromantik?". GamesRadar+. Retrieved January 1, 2021.
  2. Livington, Christopher (March 19, 2021). "Relax, mostly, with this lovely and peaceful landscape strategy game". PC Gamer. Future plc. Retrieved January 7, 2022.
  3. Purchese, Robert (May 18, 2021). "Dorfromantik review - gentle elegance from a deceptively challenging village builder". Eurogamer. Retrieved October 6, 2021.
  4. Boulding, Jonathon (January 25, 2021). "Dorfromantik is a bucolic little cityscaping puzzler". PC Gamer. Future plc. Retrieved January 7, 2022.
  5. Skrebels, Joe (August 27, 2021). "Relaxing Puzzler Dorfromantik Gets a Creative Mode, Out Now - Gamescom 2021". IGN. Retrieved January 7, 2021.
  6. Kerr, Chris (July 19, 2021). "Sparking joy through tile placement in idyllic village builder Dorfromantik". Game Developer. Retrieved January 7, 2022.
  7. Boudreau, Ian (March 25, 2021). "Chill city-building game Dorfromantik is out now in Early Access". PCGamesN. Retrieved January 7, 2021.
  8. Harris, Iain (July 1, 2021). "Chill city-building game Dorfromantik's 1.0 gets delayed, but here's a packed roadmap". PCGamesN. Retrieved January 7, 2022.
  9. Bailey, Dustin (March 24, 2022). "Chill city builder Dorfromantik properly launches next month". PCGamesN. Retrieved April 30, 2022.
  10. Whitehead, Thomas (August 4, 2021). "Dorfromantik Is A 'Peaceful Building Strategy' Experience Coming To Switch". Nintendo Life. Retrieved January 7, 2022.
  11. Toukana [@_Toukana] (January 18, 2022). "D: So that's why we were taught to only use the sources of the sources when sourcing wikipedia back in my day! For now, we are fully comitted [sic] to PC only, and will check feasibility for ports after 1.0 releases.. :(" (Tweet). Retrieved April 30, 2022 – via Twitter.
  12. "Dorfromantik for PC Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved April 30, 2022.
  13. Handley, Zoey (April 28, 2022). "Review: Dorfromantik". Destructoid. Retrieved April 30, 2022.
  14. Rabenstein, Wolfgang (April 24, 2022). "Exklusivtest: In Dorfromantik baut ihr eure perfekte Welt und wollt nie wieder weg" [Exclusive review: In Dorfromantik you build your perfect world and never want to leave]. GameStar. Webedia. Retrieved April 30, 2022.
  15. Clark, Nicole (March 26, 2021). "'Dorfromantik' Turns City-Building into a Beautiful Series of Puzzles". Vice. Vice Media Group LLC. Retrieved January 7, 2022.
  16. Knoop, Joseph (May 8, 2021). "Genesis Noir, Spiritfarer, and Paradise Killer Lead IGF Award Nominations". IGN. Retrieved January 7, 2022.
  17. "Dorfromantik". Deutscher Computerspielpreis (in German). Retrieved October 5, 2021.
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