Chances are that you’ve at least heard of Settlers of Catan. Most people know that it’s one of the most revered and complicated board games and that it has attained cult status because of this. If you are a fan of modern strategy games like Sid Meier’s Civilization or Crusader Kings, then chances are that fandom owes something to the classic strategy board game. How that board game came to be, though, that’s a bit of a story.
This video from YouTube channel Great Big Story shows the history of Settlers of Catan by catching up with Klaus Teuber, the creator of the game, as well as his two sons. Klaus had made games before, but Settlers of Catan was released in 1994 and won “Game of the Year” in Germany before it took off globally. The idea behind the game was built upon the idea of the vikings and how they spread out, forcing them to settle new lands and survive.
He wanted to create a “peaceful” game that was both relaxing and strategic at the same time, which explains why the game can take so damned long to play because you can’t simply raise an army and steamroll the other players. These design choices were what helped to make the game so very popular to this very day.