Digital always starts with physical first. In 2025, Kingdomino underwent a graphic redesign, transitioning from Cyril Bouquet's original 2D art style to a vibrant and contemporary 3D update by Pauline Detraz. Pauline requires little to no introduction, given her notable work on Kingdomino, Akropolis, City Tour, and many other well-known board games in the industry. Here's how the design process went.
A New Look for a Wider Audience
Pauline's goal was clear: to respect the universe that Cyril had shaped over the years, while meeting a new editorial requirement - opening Kingdomino to a wider, more mass-market audience. Her first attempts naturally fell in line with the games she had already illustrated: a style close to concept art, digital illustrations of environments, just the way she liked them. But this style felt too gamer-y. It appealed primarily to experienced players and lacked the lightness to reach a wider audience.
The feedback from Blue Orange pointed toward simplified, more colourful forms inspired by the graphic world of mobile games. One of the main references mentioned was Clash Royale. Pauline had been curious about 3D rendering for a while, so she took the opportunity to sharpen her skills with Blender - a tool used in motion design and many other fields - and built her assets in 3D. Once the models were validated, she worked on the game's six biomes, developing building models and the environments they fit into. There was a lot of back-and-forth with the team, particularly around the colours of each biome, so they would be clearly distinguished from each other while keeping a smooth, intuitive experience.
To pay homage to Cyril's original work, Pauline incorporated numerous small stories into the tiles to add a touch of poetry. She drew inspiration from childhood tales and European literature - perfect allusions to capture the gaze of a player deep in thought: "Hey, there's a dolphin in the sea over there...". She also reworked the buildings so they evolve based on the number of crowns on a tile, similar to a Pokemon evolution.
Aside from the art style, we also needed to examine the gameplay metrics - the foundation of the game we were trying to adapt from physical to digital.
Diving Deep Into the Kingdom
Our journey began with a crucial mission: crack the code of what makes Kingdomino tick. What keeps players coming back for "just one more game"? Where does the experience stumble? What have devoted fans been championing - or critiquing - over the years? Most importantly, how could we take these insights and craft a digital version that makes both newcomers and seasoned players feel right at home?
We immersed ourselves in every facet of the game, dissecting its mechanics and the strategic depth beneath its approachable surface. This deep dive wasn't just about faithful recreation - it was about amplifying what makes Kingdomino special in the first place.
The heart of Kingdomino lies in its beautifully balanced tile-laying system, with wonderfully simple rules that hide genuinely tough decisions. Our challenge was to translate that "easy to learn, challenging to master" magic into digital form: controls intuitive enough for newcomers to feel confident within minutes, yet packed with enough strategic nuance to keep veterans engaged for the long haul.
Bringing the Kingdom to Life - Initial Prototype
With Kingdomino thoroughly deconstructed, it was time for the exciting part: building our first playable prototype. We started with the essentials - tiles and grids - focusing on what would feel natural and satisfying on a touchscreen. The answer? Drag-and-drop mechanics that would make placing tiles feel genuinely tactile and rewarding.
From there, the kingdom took shape piece by piece. Placement restrictions? Check. Terrain types? Done. Basic scoring systems? In the bag. Before long we had a fully functional solo experience. But let's be honest - Kingdomino without opponents is like a castle without a kingdom. It was time to bring in the competition.
Going digital opened up new opportunities for the game. We could display the entire tile deck at a glance, giving players perfect information about what dominoes were still in play - something you'd otherwise have to count physically in the tabletop version.
But we also faced a unique challenge: no more casual glances across the table to scope out your opponents' growing kingdoms. That sideways peek at your rival's strategy is crucial for advanced play, so we couldn't just ignore it. Our solution? Dynamic minimaps in the player display, offering instant visual snapshots of everyone's kingdoms. Now players can quickly assess the competition without losing strategic depth.
From Brush to Pixel - Translating Pauline's Art
Now that we had a complete grasp on the game design, it was time to take a visual leap and ensure Pauline's artwork was fully realised in a 3D world.
Fortunately, Pauline's vision for a mobile-inspired 3D aesthetic aligned seamlessly with our objectives for the digital adaptation. Our mission was to faithfully preserve the distinctive charm of Kingdomino's artwork. To do that, we collaborated directly with Pauline, who graciously provided the original 3D source files from her creative process - enabling us to bring Kingdomino to life in its digital form authentically.
Our initial challenge was to extract the essential elements from Pauline's highly complex and detailed models, then optimise them to ensure smooth performance within the game environment without compromising visual quality. This proved to be an extensive process that required modifications to every asset, from the Lake Pontoons to the Sheep in the fields.
Once complete, we created a full digital representation of every domino, ensuring each tile accurately matched the original images. For some Meeple Corp flavour, we also introduced Farmers, Lumberjacks, Wizards, and an assortment of animals - and let them walk around the Kingdom. The population grows as the player places more tiles, so the larger a kingdom gets, the more it comes to life.
We now had a working game with finalised visual domino artwork to boot. The final major visual improvement to be made was the lighting.
The dominoes were visually compelling in isolation, but they needed additional artistic context to feel fully integrated into the floating Kingdomino world. We implemented a skybox and dynamic cloud systems to surround the kingdoms, which reinforced the floating-landscape concept, and established directional lighting to add depth and realism to each domino. Wheatfields now shimmer in the daylight, while Forests cast atmospheric shadows across the terrain.
To top it off, we even created a dusk mode for the game, which gave the whole scene a more orange hue for a bit of change in scenery. With additional refinement and visual enhancement, the game's aesthetics were finalised and ready for player experience.
Enter the Dream Team - First Playable
We brought Blue Orange and Bruno Cathala deeper into the game at this stage - because who better to guide a game's digital transformation than its creator?
From the outset, we recognised that Bruno's involvement would be essential. This is his masterpiece, after all, and he understands every nuance, every strategic layer, every moment that makes players lean forward in their chairs. Throughout development he provided invaluable feedback, focusing on making the core interactions satisfying, offering advice on AI difficulty and strategy, and helping shape our early ideas for the progression system in 'Lost Kingdom'.
""Working alongside the game's architect wasn't just helpful - it transformed our vision." \- The Meeple Corp team, on collaborating with Bruno Cathala"
As development progressed, we faced some critical questions: what would keep players hitting "play again" long after the novelty wore off? How could we deliver genuine value to the players who'd already memorised every tile in the physical edition?
The answer emerged in the form of 'Lost Kingdom' - our comprehensive progression system designed to give players that "just one more game" pull. We wove in Quests from Kingdomino: Age of Giants right into the base experience, giving players fresh content to unlock and new strategies to master. Pair that with a roster of challenging achievements, and suddenly players had compelling reasons to return day after day, pushing their skills further with each session.
But we weren't stopping there. Behind the scenes, we were simultaneously expanding our online matchmaking infrastructure, laying the groundwork for our next major leap forward.
Taking It to the People - Public Playtest
Then came the moment of truth: our first public community playtest. We assembled a diverse group of testers - from die-hard Kingdomino veterans to digital board game enthusiasts discovering the kingdom for the first time, and everyone in between. This mix proved invaluable, giving us feedback from every angle imaginable.
The results were eye-opening. Two pain points emerged as clear priorities: tile placement mechanics and turn clarity. Players were getting tangled up in the drag-and-drop process, unsure exactly how and when to commit their tiles to the grid. Even more concerning, they were struggling to track themselves in the player display and often missed their moment to play. The solution? We introduced tap-to-place as an alternative control scheme and completely reimagined the in-game UI from the ground up.
Our best innovation from this playtest, however, stemmed from a relatively simple goal: make tile placement feel seamless. We wanted that satisfying snap when a tile clicks into place - that responsive feel you can only get in a digital game.
Enter predictive tile placement. As you drag a tile across your kingdom, the game intelligently tracks your finger position and identifies the nearest legal placement spot. Release your finger and watch the magic happen: the tile gracefully flies to its destination, auto-rotates to the correct orientation, and locks into place. It transformed tile placement from a cautious, deliberate action into something fluid and instinctive.
Meanwhile, we were architecting the game's progression economy - introducing Shards, weaving in achievements, and populating Lost Kingdom with enticing unlocks.
Final Touches
We then felt confident that we had captured the essence of Kingdomino, making it tactile and intuitive for a wide range of players. It was now a question of refining the game, adding sound effects, fine-tuning every interaction, and hunting down bugs.
As we drew closer to the mobile launch, we had content creators testing early access. We began tracking an in-depth list of community feedback, specifically noting which features were requested, how frequently they appeared, and how feasible they were to address. We used this list to guide the final stages of development and post-launch work, focusing our efforts on the improvements the community most wanted to see.
Polishing the Crown Jewels - The Future of Kingdomino Digital
With the core experience nailed down, we knew we'd captured the soul of Kingdomino - that perfect blend of tactile satisfaction and intuitive design that would resonate with players across the spectrum. From there it was time for the detailed work: layering in crisp sound effects, fine-tuning every interaction until it felt just right, and embarking on the eternal developer's quest of bug-hunting.
As the mobile launch loomed in June 2025, we opened the gates to content creators for early access playthroughs. Their videos didn't just generate buzz - they became an incredible source of real-world feedback from engaged players. We weren't just collecting comments; we built a comprehensive tracking system that meticulously catalogued every piece of community feedback. How often did specific requests pop up? Could we realistically implement them? This data-driven approach became our roadmap, guiding both the final development sprint and our post-launch priorities.
The message was clear: we'd let the community's voice steer the ship, ensuring our efforts focused squarely on the improvements that mattered most to the people actually playing the game.
Through the successful mobile launch our efforts didn't slow - in fact they increased - adding Live Events with Community Goals and then focusing on the transition from mobile to PC, which launched on November 20th. The demo is now available to play for free on Steam, and we are still on the lookout for feedback, so please don't hesitate to share your thoughts.
It's been a fantastic journey so far, and we're proud of what we have created. It's all thanks to the hard work of our team, Blue Orange, Bruno Cathala, and the Kingdomino fans. We look forward to showing you what's in store for the future.
