Dorfromantik — Comforting Peace
When I’m having A Day™, I have some standbys when it comes to games, just to help me decompress and come back to level. My standbys have just a few criteria: minimal to no plot; good vibes; ability to pause (if needed) without penalty. Obviously, there’s Kind Words, but as can be expected, a lot of chill puzzle games tend to take up the top slots: Mini Metro, Frostpunk (on an easier difficulty, let’s not kid ourselves) or even just a literal print of Sudoku. But, blessed be the Steam Summer Sale, I have a new entry for my shortlist: Dorfromantik by Toukana Interactive.
The premise of Dorfromantik is blissfully simple: using a predetermined stack of hexagonal tiles, build out a landscape from a central point, and maximize your points before running out of tiles. Players can acquire more tiles by fulfilling “missions” pinned on some of the tiles: making a forest with at least 98 trees; a series of grain fields with exactly 12 fields; a river at least 18 units long, and so on, or by sealing off a previously built-out biome (stopping the encroaching village of houses may net you more tiles to use). As such, Dorfromantik nudges players towards careful planning; to maximize score, players will want to play smart and proactive, laying down tiles to match up or build on growing chains. Eventually, players will run out of tiles, and the game will end.
From there, players can start over. Every game begins the same: one blank hex tile, and a predetermined stack of 50 tiles to work with. No levels, no difficulty sliders, no plot to harry the experience. Dorfromantik is minimal, but does the absolute most with a simple toolkit.
Like other well-made puzzle-management games, Dorfromantik excels at incremental progression. As mentioned, every game starts out with a singular hexagon that players build out from. But before long, players are contending with an entire region that, despite its vast and growing size, is not overwhelming. By incrementally expanding at a pace the players control, players are able to keep track of everything going on, because they are the ones to have set the pace. It’s a satisfying feeling, even after losing, to pan over the entire landscape and marvel at what you’ve created.
For more progress-driven players, there are certain challenges that can be tackled and conquered by unlocking far-flung tiles. From reaching a high score, to creating massive biomes, and careful planning and tile placement, players are rewarded with new tile-types in their stacks and shiny in-game trophies. They are, at the most, fun incentives for certain players. For everyone else, it’s just a facet to stumble on during gameplay.
Mechanically, Dorfromantik is a dream. There is no time limit. Take whatever time you need to place your world down. There is no need to pause. The game is patient and will wait for you, and will continue to move, live, and breathe while you ponder. More than similar games, Dorfromantik doubles-down on the relaxing aspect by allowing the world to continue while you think. There are no drawbacks or penalties to this, it’s all by design to maximize chill. Plus, if it truly is A Day™, Dorfromantik is playable with only a mouse. Maximum chill.
All of Dorfromantik’s experience would be lesser without the lovely soundtrack and soundscape provided. The soundscape, albeit simple and reused many times throughout play, is made up of simple and grounding sounds, often complimenting that which is closest (people noises in villages, a bell on a train, and so on). Aside from those diegetic-style sounds, there are, as I noted “happy little chimes” that pop up when you complete a mission or unlock a trophy. Simple, but effective. The soundtrack, composed by Laryssa Okada (composer for Manifold Garden, among other projects) and Pygoscelis, is evocative of simpler times, of breezy adventures that you may or may not have had before. Every track instills peace, even as the stack of tiles dwindles and players come to grips with impending loss. The music is never overpowering, never dominating, but it never fades completely in the soundscape. It may, however, fade from your conscious notice of it, with how calming it is.
If you’re not completely sold on Dorfromantik, then, on the one hand, I don’t know why you’ve made it to the end. But on the other, my final sell: throughout playing, I kept catching myself at the end of a round. I’d forgotten to take any screenshots. I’ll just take some more next round, I tell myself. Little did my small-minded past self know, I would make the same mistake over, and over, and over again. Nearly eight hours of playing, I had to jolt myself into taking a couple snapshots midgame, so engaged was I in the gameplay loop. Dorfromantik is simple, beautiful, and relaxing unlike any game I’ve played in recent memory. Anyone would do well to lose themselves in it for a while…and then maybe a little longer.
All images captured in-game.
