Dorfromantik is a pretty simple game with an even simpler premise. Players get a bunch of tiles, they lay them down, and if they manage to place the tiles well around each other - creating forests and winding rivers alongside golden fields and sprawling villages - players get more points and, more importantly, more tiles.
It's an easy game to get sucked into for a few hours at a time, but after a certain amount of playtime, the game can begin to feel a little lacking. From adding more features to allowing users a little more freedom in deciding how to play, here are a few ways Dorfromantik could potentially be improved.
7 Tile Exchanging
Though the ability to exchange tiles in some manner might arguably be too against the Dorfromantik design of 'doing your best with what you're given', many players argue that there does need to be some form of tile exchange available. This could include a huge range of different ways to switch out tiles: perhaps it could be as simple as exchanging one tile for another, even if the tile you're swapping is 'hidden' in some way, thus making it, so the player could be taking a big gamble by swapping out their current tile for a mystery tile. It could be done by shuffling the pile players already have on hand, or by allowing players to reserve tiles for later on in the game.
Regardless of how this exchange might happen, it would make the game far more enjoyable for players who find that the RNG of Dorfromantik isn't very fair, or that the random hand they're given becomes more stressful than relaxing the more they play. Plus, it could always be implemented in a way that means players who don't want to participate in exchanging tiles don't have to - it could always be avoidable or opt-in in some way.
6 Multiplayer Features
With how popular multiplayer games are and how often multiplayer features are added to games that wouldn't even seem as though they necessarily need it, it's a little surprising that Dorfromantik hasn't decided to take advantage of the hype and add some multiplayer capabilities to the game.
There are dozens of opportunities that multiplayer could give players, too. Multiplayer could turn the game into a competition between friends to see who can fill up the most space or who can achieve the most challenges first; it could also lead to some really fun collaborations between two or more creative people. Multiplayer could even take advantage of online multiplayer by giving several players totally different-looking tiles and an entirely different aesthetic, allowing them to link up tiles and create an interesting and lovely piece of land they otherwise couldn't achieve in a single-player game.
5 More Quests
While playing Dorfromantik, players might notice small, white tiles floating somewhere just off-screen. These little floating spaces will often hold something interesting, like a new building. The idea is that players are meant to build towards them to uncover whatever secret they might hold; usually, it's something like a new building to begin placing tiles around, and it usually acts as a fun and refreshing way to spice up gameplay by adding something new to the visuals of your little piece of land.
At the same time, after a few playthroughs, these little quests do become a bit tired. They don't hold any further secrets for players, and while they're definitely still fun to work towards, sometimes the difficulty of it doesn't quite feel worth the amount of work you have to do to reach them. New quests would add some more interesting secrets for players to find, even if they're only small.
4 Fewer Repeating Tiles
Though this vaguely links back to the idea of being able to exchange tiles in some manner, many players feel that Dorfromantik also needs better RNG in the first place. Many players have found that when they're being challenged in some way - for example, when they're close to achieving a new high score, or they have a rare tile waiting for them just out of reach, or they might need a certain amount of trees or water - Dorfromantik seems to understand this. However, instead of encouraging it by offering more of the tiles that the player needs to complete their challenge, the game seems to actively punish players by giving them tiles that they don't need, essentially offloading them with tiles they'll struggle to use. This means that the player will get fewer points, and that they'll clutter up their map with tiles they'll find difficult to match.
All in all, Dorfromantik could definitely do with better RNG. It could just be sheer bad luck that the tiles players need never seem to come when they're wanted most, but with how many players have complained about the incredibly poor tile distribution that always seems to time itself right when players are working towards specific challenges, it doesn't seem to be a coincidence. Either way, it does appear to be something that needs to be fixed, even if the game isn't intentionally making things harder for players.
3 More Simulation
Dorfromantik is a gorgeous game that even offers the player visual diversity as they grow their map larger - one side of the world may be covered in snow in cool shades of gray and blue, whilst the opposite side may be in the midst of summer in shades of green. Similarly, little features like boats traveling across the water add to the sensation that the world is truly 'alive'. However, despite these small additions to the game, many players may still feel that the world they're building feels a little lonely - as though they're some sort of omnipotent presence, watching but never really getting involved.
For some players, this distance between the player and their in-game world is sure to make the game feel a little less appealing. One way around this could be to begin adding in traits seen in similar world-building simulators, like games from the Civilization series. Perhaps if players connect farmland with a small village, the game could simulate some kind of trading that occurs between the two. Or if a small village connects to a much larger, urban area, the game could simulate tourism or traveling that happens across both locations. Though it would likely be difficult to balance to what extent players could simulate things like trading and traveling without creating an entirely different game, this is one idea that could help improve Dorfromantik while still keeping its initial goal of world-building at the forefront of gameplay.
2 Different Game Modes
While Dorfromantik is almost universally agreed upon to be a nice, relaxing game, this doesn't mean that different players don't want different things from it. For example, Dorfromantik on Steam offers its players different achievements depending on what they manage to accomplish in game, which may encourage competitive gamers to play the game for the achievements. On the other hand, plenty of players appreciate the game as more of a building sim game, and the constant reminder of high scores and achieving points can be more of a stressor to them.
Keeping this in mind, it would certainly be good if Dorfromantik realized that creating different modes for different kinds of players may be a good option. For instance, a 'free play' mode that allows players to build as they please without the restraints of points would suit more casual gamers, while a mode that encourages competitive gamers to achieve higher and higher scores while limiting or challenging them in some way could suit gamers looking for a bigger challenge. This would also add more variety to the game, increasing the longevity of Dorfromantik for many people.
1 More Rewards
While playing Dorfromantik, players are rewarded with points for matching tiles up well with surrounding tiles. For example, if players receive a tile with farmland on two sides and forest on the other four sides, they should try to slot that tile into a position so the farmland links to other farmlands and the forest matches with other forests. If they do that, they'll get perfect placement and will gain extra points. However, managing to place tiles perfectly becomes far harder as the game progresses and space grows smaller, and the slight reward of a few extra points can certainly feel lackluster.
In this manner, gaining better rewards for matching tiles up perfectly would be a great motivator, regardless of how difficult it might be. There are tons of opportunities for rewards, too - Dorfromantik developers could really get creative with it. Maybe there could be secret locations (other than the quests we mentioned before) that can only be unlocked after a certain amount of perfect placements or after hitting a certain amount of points, or maybe there could be special tiles only accessible after a certain amount of perfect matches.
Overall, though Dorfromantik is a beautiful experience overall, it could definitely do with some improvements. Maybe the development team behind the game will take these things into account for the next game they make. After the success of Dorfromantik, fans can only wait and see!
Dorfromantik is available now on PC and will release for Switch on September 29, 2022.