Klaus Teuber was a German board game designer who created the influential game Settlers of Catan.
- Died: April 1, 2023 (Who else died on April 1?)
- Details of death: Died after a brief illness at the age of 70.
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Klaus Teuber’s legacy
Teuber was working as a dental technician when he designed his first board game, Barbarossa. In it, players mold clay figurines, and their opponents have to guess what they have created. Barbarossa was a success, winning the prestigious Spiel de Jahres award in 1988. Encouraged, Teuber continued designing games even as he remained with the dental practice. In the early 1990s, he began working on Settlers of Catan, inspired by imagining how the Vikings settled Iceland.
Released in Germany in 1995 and in the U.S. the following year, Settlers of Catan earned Teuber another Spiel de Jahres and became a worldwide phenomenon. Within a few years of the release of Settlers of Catan – now known simply as Catan – Teuber was able to leave the dental practice and focus on game design. Catan’s success spawned many expansions and variants, as well as computer and mobile games. It profoundly influenced the board game industry, with a variety of Catan-inspired games following in its wake. Even Monopoly has adapted to release versions that seem to riff on Catan’s style.
Teuber on Catan’s success
“There may have been a good balance between strategy and luck. For example, roulette is only about luck, and chess is all about strategies. However, if you win in Catan, you think, ‘My strategy was good’ and when you lose, you might think, ‘I was just out of luck….’ The other reason is that the land layout is changed every time, and you can feel like a new game whenever you play. Moreover, something is never destroyed during the game, and it is also a very friendly game. That’s probably why Catan has a lot of female fans. In many games, about 80% of the players are male, but in Catan, it’s half and half.” —source
Tributes to Klaus Teuber
Full obituary: Yahoo
