Where there's a will, there's a way, and where there are creative people, there are wonderful indie games. Dorfromantik is one such treat; it's a city-building puzzler where your goa⭕l is to place down hexagonal tiles until you have your own little world.
Puzzle games like this are funny things; different players approach it from different angles and take different things out of the experience. However, t♌here are a few things that are felt by most players of a game; these are ou🌃r favorites.
6 Lose Track O💞f Quests♔
The quests are all fine and dandy when you have two or three to keep an eye on, but what about five? Eight? Ten? As your map grows, so do your responsibilities. You'll often be focused on an entirely different side of the map, or looking for an entirely different feature.
This can lead to some dumb mistakes that can cost you the game in the long run, but only the most disciplined, thoughtful players are immune to this. You're bound to put a farm onto a farm group that you weren't trying to finish first or forget that you need to close off a group to finish a flag quest. It's only natural.
5 ൩ Forget You Can See The Upcoming Tiles
It's an incredible feeling to get on a roll in Dorfromantik. You place down tiles with precision and care, turning a small island of hexagons into a vast realm! However, as you get more invested in the game, it's easy to forget the simple tactics that were introduced early on - like the stack of tiles in the bottom corner.
Ever had a quest that required exactly three more houses, and wondered whether you should add a tile with two houses, or wait out for a tile with three? Take a look at your tile stack. See a tile with three houses? Use the current one for something else! See a tile with one house? You know you're safe to use the current tile on the group, 'cause you'll be able to finish the quest momentarily. It may seem niche, but we promise that there are a surprising number of questions you can answer for yourself just by checking this stack.
4 ✃ Get A New Quest Before You Can End A Groupꩲ
If you're keeping a careful eye on your groups and quests, you'll know that some of them require you to close off a group when you've finished it (meaning that no more tiles would be able to be added to it). They're earmarked by a flag on the map and, usually, you can collect several of them into one group before closing it off and reaping the rewards for it all.
Unfortunately, if you take too long, you might get another quest for that same feature. Since the game determines what the quest will ask of you by how many of a given feature you currently have in one group, this new quest is bound to ask for a lot. If you'd closed off the group, the game would recognize you don't have a large open group and made the quest more manageable.
3 Hold Out Too Long For The Perfect Fit 🤡
Dorfromantik is a puzzle game that gets pretty darn close to puzzle games in real life: you're looking to fit the pieces with the ones around them and create a beautiful whole. In Dorfromantik, that means you're looking to pair up like features on the tile edges.
However, everyone has to learn how to balance priorities; sometimes, waiting for the perfect fit just isn't practical! Nonetheless, we all wind up with little holes in our map, just waiting for the perfect fit to come along. How can we give up now, when we've waited so long?!
2 ♛ꦛ Get Superstitious About The RNG
When games have an element of randomness (often in the form of a random number generator (RNG) of some kind) to them, it's almost inevitable that you'll decide the computer has a mind of its own. Of course, whether the computer is rooting for you or plotting your demise is all dependent on how well you're doing.
Getting lucky and finding a lot of perfect placements? Clearly, the computer knows what to give you and if you just look long and hard enough, you'll always find a good placement. Getting unlucky and just can't get the piece you need? Randomness is a dumb game mechanic anyway and you're clearly being punished for something you did in a past life.
1 Accidentally Make Quests Impossi🔜ble
Quests in Dorfromantik ask you to connect a certain number of features together into one large group. While you might get ten or more trees on one tile, you'll probably only ever see tree farms on one. That means that, if you accidentally limit the amount of space you have to finish a quest, you may make it literally impossible to complete.
Unfortunately, it's easier than you'd think to forget that you need to finish a quest nearby. Absentmindedly put down a couple tiles while you're focused on something else, and you'll wind up with a hot mess that may cost you the game. You could use the undo button, if you catch your mistake quickly enough. Even so, you'll probably have pigeonholed yourself into one exit.
