Inside ‘Agricola: All Creatures Big & Small’

Review Fix chats with Felix Dreyfus, CEO, DIGIDICED, who discusses their new board game turned video game, “Agricola: All Creatures Big & Small,” detailing the development process, gameplay elements and what it was like working with creator Uwe Rosenberg again. Dreyfus also discusses the company’s plans for the future as well.

About Agricola: All Creatures Big & Small:

In Agricola: All Creatures Big & Small, the player is the owner of an old farmstead with a bit of land. However, a neighboring farmer happens to have a competitive streak — so all bets are off! Both players (human and CPU) must use their wits to acquire and manage both resources and livestock over eight rounds — while attempting to strategically deploy buildings — in a mad dash for farm and fortune.

For More on the Game, Click Here.

Review Fix: What was development like?

Felix Dreyfus: It was a lot of fun! It’s our third game with Uwe Rosenberg — after Le Havre: The Inland Port and Patchwork — and working together has yielded great results once again. We’re honored to be able to work on an important IP such as Agricola — and although some the development was challenging, we’re very happy with the end product.

Review Fix: How difficult is it to take a game like this from idea to execution?

Dreyfus: There are pros and cons. When taking a board game as a base for an app, you first need to deal with the onscreen real estate; for example, you have a lot less room to display the information that can be easily scanned when viewing a board game. Figuring out how to translate what worked before into what will work on a tiny iPhone display (while keeping the flair of the original) is almost always the trickiest part of development. A lot of our players complained in previous games about wasted space on one device or another, so we made it a point to have a UI that scaled properly — regardless of the aspect ratio. The village, for example, is where we made the most changes. The player farms look just like those in the original, with the addition of animations.

The second challenge involved the expansions. There are two expansions with 27 new buildings, each of which can be placed on a farm. Almost all the buildings present new “rules” that can sometimes impact the core game. Expansions may add a lot of variety, but they can also bring programmers close to a mental breakdown! We’ve implemented the first expansion for release and will be adding the second one at a later time.

Review Fix: What’s the most enjoyable element of Agricola: All Creatures Big & Small?

Dreyfus: The breeding phase. It’s a very logical bit of the rulebook — and everyone gets it instantly: “If you have at least two or more animals of the same type on your farm at the end of a round, you get an additional one.” It’s just very satisfying to get 4 animals “free” at the end of a round … and see your score skyrocket — provided you have the room to place them on the farm, of course; if not, it becomes a rather sad part of the game (!)

Review Fix: Who do you think will enjoy the game the most?

Dreyfus: We’ve made sure to include features for as many different types of players as possible. The farming theme can appeal to a broad range of players after all. The easy AI is a pushover, and the hard AI provides a good challenge for those still getting the grasp of the finer parts of the game (and making little mistakes here and there). There’s casual play for any player wanting to play against friends without the added stress of winning or losing ranked points. Finally, for the more hardcore players, we have an asynchronous online mode (ranked) where players can compete to see who’s the Alpha Farmer. Reaching the top 10 in DIGIDICED’s previous games takes a lot of skill and perseverance; we’re confident this will translate to Agricola: All Creatures Big & Small as well.

Review Fix: Bottom line, why should someone play Agricola: All Creatures Big & Small?


Dreyfus: First of all, it’s based on an amazingly well done board game. Uwe Rosenberg is known for making challenging, fair and fun games — and this one is no exception. It won multiple awards and may be consider as one of the best two-player board games ever made. The digital game gives you the possibility to play without needing another player present and takes care of tedious tasks such as setting up the game or keeping track of the score. The ability to meet like-minded players in our small-but-growing community is an added bonus.

Review Fix: What are your goals for the game?

Dreyfus: We want the game to speak to players unfamiliar with Uwe’s work. One of our primary goals has always been to bring games we enjoy playing to a larger audience. Of course, we also hope that Agricola: All Creatures Big & Small will enable us to develop our next title!

Review Fix: What’s next for DIGIDICED?

Dreyfus: We’ve actually signed an incredible license recently. It will be the first game for more than two players, and the first one not authored by Uwe Rosenberg. We’re waiting until we have something more substantial to show both players and press before we reveal the details.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14230 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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