Ravensburger’s Daniel Greiner and Chiara Bellavite talk Gloomies

To kick us off, can you give us a broad overview of Gloomies and how it plays?
Daniel Greiner, Games Development Manager, Ravensburger: Gloomies is a light strategy game for two to four players, ages ten and up. It’s set in the unique world of the Gloomies – tiny beings from a galaxy far away – that need your help to grow and harvest beautiful flowers.

The growing and harvesting are the core mechanics of the game, which plays in two phases. In the first phase, you must draft cards to grow flowers on a shared game board. You try to collect bonuses and score points for how many flowers you grow. In the second phase, you re-play your cards from before to harvest the flowers! Harvested flowers are then used to decorate Gloomies and score points. The player that was the biggest help to the Gloomies wins!

This comes from designer Filippo Landini. What appealed about the concept?
Daniel: What stood out during playtesting was the two phases of the gameplay – we liked how the two halves almost mirror each other. The central game board starts out empty and slowly fills up with colourful flower tokens. During the second phase, this plays out in reverse as players slowly pick the flower garden clean. We liked the unique and very thematic feeling this evokes – and how players seemingly work together in a shared garden, even though the game is competitive.

Did Filippo’s concept change much during development?
Daniel: As the core mechanics of the game were already very streamlined when we received the concept, our development focused on the theme, illustrations and components. There were still some minor gameplay improvements – as well as a lot of balancing to make the game feel varied and fair. We wanted to retain the suspense and tough decisions it had from the start, though!

Chiara Bellavite, Art Director, Ravensburger: The game was originally set in a vegetable garden, so one of the biggest – and most visible – changes was to bring it into the universe of flowers and Gloomies. The components started out flatter, with a traditional game board. We evolved into a 3D multi-layered game board inside the box to make the actions feel as satisfying and tangible as possible.

Lovely. Digging into that a little more, why does a layered board make such a difference?
Daniel: We wanted to make the haptic gameplay as satisfying as possible and that quickly led to the game board having holes in which to place the wooden flower tokens. Having these predetermined spaces helped to keep the board orderly and pleasing. It also helped enhance the tactile satisfaction of fitting a flower token into a hole.

We debated a double-layered board stuck together but ended up with two layers that you can assemble in multiple orientations to keep the board varied. To stop the two layers from misaligning, we encased them in the box. This ultimately creates a unique, compact centrepiece for our game that looks almost like a raised flower bed.

Looping back to your work on the theme, you’ve created a brand-new species with the Gloomies. How did you decide what form they should take?
Chiara: The spark behind the Gloomie universe came from seeing the world up close – like looking through a magnifying glass. As a kid, I loved zooming in on tiny things, discovering hidden wonders that made the ordinary extraordinary. We wanted to show that garden critters – often seen as pests – are actually caretakers, helping flowers grow and thrive. It’s a reminder that we’re just guests on a planet that lived in balance long before us.

The shimmering attire of the Gloomies reflects another big theme: the endless cycles of nature – day and night, seasons, planets and stars. There’s something magical about it, isn’t there? All the Gloomies share deep, big eyes to better see the garden at night. With Justin Chan’s art, we’ve worked to capture and celebrate that sense of whimsy and wonder.

What does box art need to do to stand out these days? This is so striking…
Chiara: Thank you! We wanted to capture the feel-good vibe of blooming and harvesting, while showcasing the deep love the Gloomies have for their garden. To do this, we chose a unique visual approach: a cinematic close-up of their glossy, gazing eyes. This not only highlights their connection to the garden but also sets us apart from similar games which usually focus more on the world itself, rather than its inhabitants.

Last question! Is there anything about Gloomies that you feel was designed especially to appeal to today’s ‘modern board gamer’?
Daniel: Modern board gaming is highly diverse – not all mechanics and graphics appeal to everyone… That said, a lot of players enjoy nice components, tactile play experiences and beautiful aesthetics. With Gloomies, we gave it our best to combine them during our development to enhance the already strong gameplay.

Now, hopefully everybody can find a part of this game that speaks to them… The clever planning over two game phases, or the cute and enchanting Gloomies in their colourful universe… Or the beautifully designed wooden flower tokens that just feel so nice to plant on the double-layered board.

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