Happy Anniversary! 🥳
One year ago, on 2022-04-28, Dorfromantik left Early Access. Since then, a lot has happened involving Dorfromantik. Some everyone was able to see, some maybe was more easy to miss. Let us look back a year, see what has happened, and celebrate for a little while!
But before that, thank you. Yes, you! Yes, you there on the right as well! Yes, even you in the back there, we see you! Thank You for playing, enjoying, and sharing your love of Dorfromantik! We would not be where we are now, if it wasn't for every single one of you awesome folks!
Full Release
Let's start at the beginning then, shall we?
With the Full Release, Version 1.0, we added a lot of stuff. Most notably was the addition of no less than four new Game Modes! Each of these additional Game Modes was something that you, the community asked for:
Quick Mode & Hard Mode
These Modes were added due to people asking for a Mode they could play during, say, their Lunch Break for Quick Mode, and for those of you who wanted more challenge, we added Hard Mode.
Monthly Mode
With the Monthly Mode, we wanted to offer you another chance to top a Leaderboard (Yes, there are a lot of you, and we love you) - Every Month, a new challenge is given for those of you, who are a bit more competitively minded. One month, you might have to work out Rail and River routes. Another, you have to make the most out of a very small playable area. And every month, there is a fresh Leaderboard to show up your friends!
Custom Mode
Custom Mode served as the base for the three above. It allows you to change various settings and variables for the game. You also can share the Seeds generated this way and face off against your friends, or foes, with the exact same game setup and stack!
This is also when we added OST Vol. 2 to the game! :)
Road To Gamescom
That's Release. After the initial round of bug fixes, we went hard to work on two things: Preparations to go to Gamescom, and the Nintendo Switch Port! We'll talk about the latter a little later, so let's talk about Gamescom first!
As a remote studio, founded during the pandemic, we've never been all in the same place at the same time. Since we finally were in Full Release, and had some big announcements to make, we decided that Gamescom would a great way to meet up and hang out in person. As part of the Indie Arena Booth, who gave us one of the best spots they had (thanks again for that!), we had the time of our lives, meeting friends old and new, players, and generally awesome folks.
At Gamescom we announced that Dorfromantik would be coming to the Nintendo Switch, and Nintendo kitted us out with a bunch of Nintendo Switch Units to showcase the port on. We probably had the most Demo Stations in the Indie Area with 8 or 9, and starting with Press Day up to AFTER closing on Sunday Evening, our booth was always brimming with action which, frankly, was a lot more action than we thought we'd accrue!
Nintendo Switch Release
Next came the release of the Nintendo Switch Port. A highlight here was the new 'Sakura' Biome, which for the first time not only added different coloration, but also changed the style of buildings to really pull together the Japanese inspired theme!
This Port also laid the foundations for our proper, fully-realized controller support, and eventual Steam Deck Verification. Our Core Dev Team worked their butts off for this, even during their well-earned, post-summer-stress vacation.
Dorfromantik - the Boardgame
...and because we did not already have enough on our plates, we teamed up with Publisher Pegasus Spiele to bring the Boardgame-inspired Dorfromantik from screen to table! The German version was shown off at the SPIEL in Essen, where we shipped our Core Dev Team to in order to put them through another convention because that is how we show them how much we love them!
The German version released in time for the holidays, given you were able to get your hands on a copy that is, and the international, English version was released earlier this year to the great relief of everyone already up to their noses in Duolingo learning German to understand the rules!
Where do we go from here?
Since then, we have been prototyping a lot to see where our journey will take us next. We have grown a little bit (We're seven now!), and we have spent a lot of effort untangling our infrastructure from the University, now that our Core Dev Team have their Master's Degrees and are no longer students.
While we can not share quite yet what these prototypes are about, we also do not want to forget Dorfromantik, even if it is on the Backburner right now - After 3+ years we just needed some fresh air - and are aware of a bunch of regular wishes and suggestions from the community!
Dorfromantik will continue to be an important part of us this year and in the years to come, and we look forward to bringing you more exciting news for Dorfromantik. We're looking at other platforms that the community would like to see, and we'll be happy to let you know more as soon as that happens.
We hope to have more News regarding all this, and more, for you later this year.
Thank you for always supporting us, and enjoying our little game! 💙💛
P.S. - The Creative Showcase will be coming back soon™