On December 13th 2022, we had the pleasure to talk to Sandro Heuberger, Timo Falcke and Zwi Zausch, three of the four co-founders of Toukana Interactive about their studio and their hit game Dorfromantik. As always, André Bernhardt, CEO of IndieAdvisor, hosted the entertaining chat.
After a short introduction, the founders explained how the name of the studio came to pass and what their shared philosophy of game-making is. The preference for minimalistic and peaceful games brought Sandro, Timo, Zwi and Luca together during their studies at HTW Berlin and the founded their studio during their Master’s Degree.
The team talked about the prototyping phase for their first game Dorfromantik and that the scalability of the game system as well as visual diversity were key factors that flowed into the concept. A major point was also the marketability of the game, meaning that Toukana focused on a game concept that is recognizable and understandable from just one screenshot.
They expressed their gratitude to the Master’s program of the HTW, the university’s incubator program DE:HIVE and the funding of Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg. This infrastructure not only made it possible for the team to focus 100% on their game and implement a 6-hour workday routine for a major part of the development time. But it also encouraged Toukana to do all the work of a publisher themselves, including the port to the Nintendo Switch.
With the awards and recognition Dorfromantik has collected over the last year, Toukana Interactive seems to be on the right path. If you want to listen to them talk about their endeavor, you can rewatch the whole interview here.