diff --git a/backend/package.json b/backend/package.json
index 6c4c505a4e4d1ff510adfb325d2ff3dee441d4ad..03cde72d508ab6e3239b33ea306c01c744992fc0 100644
--- a/backend/package.json
+++ b/backend/package.json
@@ -4,8 +4,9 @@
   "description": "Ötzi game backend.",
   "main": "src/index.js",
   "scripts": {
-    "serve": "nodemon src/index.ts",
     "build": "tsc",
+    "start": "NODE_PATH=./dist node dist/index.js",
+    "serve": "nodemon src/index.ts",
     "lint:check": "eslint .",
     "lint:fix": "eslint . --fix",
     "format:check": "prettier . --check",
diff --git a/backend/tsconfig.json b/backend/tsconfig.json
index 6ce8041615ded3aa47bb7d359270aebe3786140b..8de0c07f1960eea1d766a9d5fb7927932f5657e5 100644
--- a/backend/tsconfig.json
+++ b/backend/tsconfig.json
@@ -1,13 +1,21 @@
 {
   "compilerOptions": {
+    /* Visit https://aka.ms/tsconfig.json to read more about this file */
+
+    // Node 16 recommendations -- https://github.com/tsconfig/bases/blob/main/bases/node16.json
+    "lib": ["ES2021"],
     "module": "commonjs",
-    "target": "es6",
-    "declaration": true,
-    "lib": ["ES6", "DOM"],
-    "outDir": "dist",
-    "rootDir": "src",
+    "target": "ES2021",
     "strict": true,
-    "typeRoots": ["./node_modules/@types"]
+    "esModuleInterop": true,
+    "skipLibCheck": true,
+    "forceConsistentCasingInFileNames": true,
+
+    // Customization
+    //"moduleResolution": "node",
+    "rootDir": "./src",
+    "baseUrl": "./src",
+    "outDir": "./dist"
   },
   "include": ["src/**/*"],
   "exclude": ["src/**/*.spec.ts"]