Microbird Games’ newest arrival, Dungeons of Hinterberg, combines magic, monsters, and tourism in a unique blend of fantasy gameplay and real-world topics, but the studio made a point of steering away from heavy-handed political statements.
Gamers with a penchant for social sims will also be keeping their eye on the upcoming Lovestruck expansion forThe Sims 4, which will introducea new mechanicallowing NPCs to have agency over developing relationships. In the same vein, Dungeons of Hinterberg also has you socializing with the locals in a bid to establish friendships and learn a thing or two about becoming a better adventurer.
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Dungeons Of Hinterberg Studio Wanted To Explore The Tourism Debate
In an interview withPC Gamer, cofounders of Microbird, Phillipp Seifried and Regina Reisinger, discussed how the game’s magic affected tourism in the fictional Austrian village, the title’s inspirations, and how players can navigate the sandbox to learn the characters’ stance on the tourism industry in general.
In a nutshell, Dungeons of Hinterberg follows law trainee, Luisa, who is taking a beat from corporate life to explore a tourist hotspot in the Austrian Alps. The twist is this location uses magic, and it’s the protagonist’s job to uncover the secrets of its origin, explore the various dungeons on offer, and slay monsters in true fantasy style.
The effect magic has on the tourist location was a primary focus during the game’s development, as Reisinger described, “Some people came for hiking or skiing, but it wasn’t a grade-A destination, it was just a mundane, normal place before something weird like magic happened. This balance and tension was what really interests us.”
Seifried added, “There’s this huge debate about tourism going on in places like Barcelona, which gets millions of tourists a year.” The devs, however, “didn’t want to make a political statement,” and “wanted to show a real place” instead, steering away from making the game a “pro or con statement.”
Emphasis was put upon the impact characters have on gameplay politics and the player’s overall perspective on tourism. “Tension plays out directly in Dungeons of Hinterberg, as both locals and visitors take stock of magic and its impact in the face of the mayor’s increasingly determined commercialization of the village. The game, however, stops short of entirely taking a side,” Seifried explained.
Ultimately, the cofounders agreed, “We want it to explore all these layers. And this is the perfect sandbox to have all these different characters where some like it and some don’t, and you may let those characters speak to all the sides of the issue.”
Dungeons of Hinterberg
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