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Building a Cosy Northsea Community - Rouven Cabanis Interview at Nordic Game 2025
We spoke with developer Wetterfest's Rouven Cabanis, game director on the upcoming Frisia: Tales & Tides, to learn more about the Northsea-based atmospheric strategy project.
Audio transcription
"Hi and welcome back to Gamereactor's coverage of this year's Nordic Game in Malmö, Sweden.
We have spoken to a lot of developers and now we got another one lined up.
It's Rouven Cabanis. He's from Germany and he has a small studio and quite an exciting project."
"So can you briefly introduce yourself and what you're working on?
Yeah, hi. So I'm a solo developer from Hamburg, Germany, and I'm working on a title called Frisia Tales & Tides, which is a simple village builder set in the location of the Frisian Islands, close to the North Sea."
"For the people who don't know, Frisia or Friesland is a region in the Netherlands and to the north of Germany, and it's a place that's very dear to my heart.
I have a lot of positive emotions with that area and I wanted to pack all this into a game.
Yeah, so can you tell us a little bit more about your connection to these areas?
Was it something that you visited as a child or what is the connection?
Yeah, so pretty much my family went there since I'm born and my grandfather went there with his children and now it's my family pretty much."
"And there's actually also a connection to Denmark, which is also a place that my family often visits.
So all this kind of northern atmospheric landscapes of the dunes and the sea and the ocean in general is something that's really touching to me and awakens a lot of nostalgia and that's pretty much why I wanted to put it in Frisia."
"Yeah, in terms of the gameplay, you say you build a city, but how does it work?
Do you start with nothing? How do you get your city to thrive?
Yeah, so the setting is in Frisia in the 19th century and you start on an empty island and you set out with your ship, settle on this island and build it up from the ground."
"And what is really important is that, especially for the people in Friesland, that you live in harmony with the sea.
So the tides have a very big influence on your city building and on all the mechanics.
For example, you have certain buildings that only work during the low tide."
"Some only work during the high tide and you have to account for that.
And then, of course, there's washed up goods on the shore of your island, which you can collect for extra resources and special items.
Can you tell us a little bit about the art style of the game?
Yeah, it's a minimalistic art style, but it's stylized and I really wanted to put an emphasis on the lighting, which is a really great part of the Frisian weather atmosphere, where you have sometimes a whole set of seasons on a single day."
"And I have a very specific cloud shader, for example, which highlights very bright areas.
Sometimes when you get sunbeam through the clouds, then an area lights up and sometimes it's a bit darker, moody, sometimes even stormy."
"So this lighting and the whole atmosphere is really focused around that.
What are some of the challenges you face being a solo developer?
And so some challenges are, of course, that I have to do everything on my own, which is also a pros pretty much, because I don't have any decision making problems, because I can just come up with an idea, try it out."
"And if it works, I can put it in the game.
I don't have to really check up with anybody else than me.
But of course, it's a lot of work and sometimes it's stressful, but I like to have my freedom with that."
"So I can pretty much decide when I want to work on what.
And that's really cool, actually.
In terms of the game releasing, when do you plan for this to happen?
So currently, I'm not having a fixed release date."
"Currently, I'm planning for something about a year and a half development time.
And then I will see from that on.
I'm on Gamescom this year, so there are going to be a new update before that.
Okay, thank you for speaking with us and good luck with the game."
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