Day 68:43A new version of Catan is taking on climate change
Players of the popular board game Catan may think they have enough to worry about when trying to rapidly develop their settlements and cities in order to achieve victory over their friends and family.
But now, along with not being able to get enough wheat, players of Catan: New Energies have to worry about a very real-world problem: environmental destruction.
“It feels to us as if how we fuel our homes, cars, how we make electricity, it’s something which we all need to be aware of,” Benjamin Teuber, who developed the new game with his late father, Klaus Teuber, told Day 6 host Brent Bambury.
“Of course, there is a story in the game, and it’s about which energy do you want to use in the end. But you’re free to choose.”
The game is similar to that of the original Catan. Players must develop their towns and cities by collecting resources and building quickly to earn victory points.
In the new game, there’s a catch. Players can choose to build with fossil fuels, which is easier but comes with risks. Or they can choose to build with clean energy, which takes more resources, but won’t harm their production of resources down the road.
Teuber says they worked with scientists to back up the science within the game.
“The game is, of course, simplified. That has to be the case for games. They always break down reality into a manageable system because reality is hyper-complex,” said Teuber.
“It’s such an important, relevant topic. But we also felt very strongly that a game must be fun.”
Games tackling social issues
Teuber says he and his father considered incorporating fossil fuels and renewable energies into Catan about a decade ago, and even tackled the benefits and drawbacks of discovering oil in the scenario expansion, Oil Springs. But the pair dusted off the idea and incorporated it more fully into the game during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Catan: New Energies isn’t the first game to tackle climate change. In the board game Daybreak, released in 2023, players control world powers and work to reduce global emissions to a net-zero.
And it’s not just climate change — board games have tackled other social issues, too. In 2019, Hasbro released a game called Ms. Monopoly, which operated under the tagline, “The first game where women make more than men.”
Steven Edmonds, co-owner of The Bard and Bear board game cafe in Hamilton, Ont., says people like to know game companies are willing to tackle social issues.
But, he says, that doesn’t make them big hits.
“There’s definitely been people who are like, ‘Yeah, I’m going to design this game and it’s going to talk about these issues, and this type of stuff.’ But very few of them have been super successful,” said Edmonds.
Mechanics over theme
He says that while there aren’t many games tackling climate change, themes around enjoying nature, like in games such as Parks and Wingspan, are popular and have done well in recent years.
He says these games, and Catan, are considered Euro-style games, which put game mechanics over theme and aim to be simple and easy to play.
But some games, considered American-style games, start with a theme and then need many rules to fit that theme.
Edmonds says while a game’s theme can be what gets people to pull a game off the shelf, at the end of the day, it’s a game’s mechanics and enjoyableness that keep people coming back to play.
“Nine times out of 10, the reason people will pick up a game is because it’s fun. That’s the point of the game is to be fun, right?” said Edmonds.
“If the game comes with a good message, that’s great. But one of the most successful games in the last couple decades was Cards Against Humanity, which did not have a good message.”
Edmonds saw Catan: New Energies demoed at a trade show recently. He says he plans on buying a copy so people can give it a try at The Bard and Bear.
Teuber hopes people can find the fun in the new version of Catan. He says that at the end of the day, people can choose how they want to play Catan: New Energies. What they take from it is up to them.
“It’s not giving you the ethics that you play with, but you will decide that when you play it,” said Teuber.