Kingdomino is turning an ancient game piece into the next hit board game franchise.
KingdominoKingdomino, the award-winning board game, is a runaway hit. The tile-laying game was released in 2016 and quickly found a home at major-box retailers across the country. Designer Bruno Cathala is now preparing to release a more advanced version. Polygon spoke with Bruno Cathala last month about the franchise’s origins and how Kingdomino Origins builds upon the original.
Cathala is a French Alps resident and works. He also has local clients, besides his work as a game designer for the international market. A nearby ski lodge was one such client. They had asked him to make unique gifts for their guests over three seasons.
Cathala stated that the ski station requested a small but very important game each year for its visitors. “The first year, I made a small game of cards. It was very small and tiny the second year, and it was a dice-based game the third. They asked me for a fourth game. I didn’t know what it was. It was very, very fast. […] I saw dominoes immediately — I don’t know why.
Many people today consider dominoes to be the same as blocks or other toys for children. The objects are from 13th-century China, where they were first used as a type of playing card in many games. In the 18th century, dominoes were introduced in Italy. Today, they are still used in many folk games.
Cathala stated, “Everybody is familiar with dominoes because it brings back your childhood.” Still, Cathala added, “But for me — for myself — I have never played a domino-based game that was interesting to me.” It was a great way to use the game component to make something.
The game was about creating landscapes at the table.
Kingdomino is a game where each player draws dominoes using a communal set. The goal is to create the largest contiguous landmass on the table. Points are earned by connecting the most mountain tiles or fields.
Cathala stated, “I immediately tried to make colors, not numbers, and to place them not in a straight line but to fill a square.” It was easy to see that some areas could be a great way to create something new for me.
The winner of the game is the player who has the most points at its end. This concept is as simple as it is powerful. It combines strategy, geometry, simple math and strategy into something almost magical.
The Kingdomino original version was available only to French Alps families who purchased a week-long pass at a nearby resort. The game evolved into the version that we know today. It is a simple game to teach, even to very young children, and comes in a compact, portable box that retails for $20. Originally published by Pegasus Spiels and distributed in the U.S. by Blue Orange Games, the game would win the 2017 Spiel der Jahres, an international prize for board gaming.
Cathala didn’t stop working on the game. He continued to play it hundreds of times more and could not help but improve the design. This experimentation resulted in The Court’s expansion, which was made freely available online in March 2020. The expansion added characters and resources to make the game more strategic.
Cathala stated that the problem with this expansion is its high cost of production. ” Kingdomino does not cost a lot. The expansion would cost the same as the original game if it were made with all the resource tokens. This is unacceptable on our market. My publishers tell me that we won’t make this expansion. But I still want to play with it.
