The Spiel des Jahres results are in – this year, the jury loved big box games.
With the gala show in Berlin, the Spiel des Jahres committee has just crowned this year’s best board games. The big winner was Dorfromantik, published by Pegasus Spiele, which won the prestigious Spiel des Jahres award.
The title is based on the 2022 town-building video games that, for many, already felt like a board gaming experience. Competing against it were Next Station: London (Blue Orange Games) and Fun Facts (Repos Production), but the German jury chose the big puzzly game with tons of replayability. Surprisingly, the game has only recently gotten an English edition available worldwide.
As for the Kennerspiel des Jahres award, which typically goes to “enthusiast” board games, the jury decided upon Challengers! from 1More Time games. Other nominees in this category were Iki (UTSUROI) and Planet Unknown (Adam’s Apple Games). Challengers! was a massive hit at Essen Spiel ‘22 and other conventions, so it is no surprise that the jury preferred it over other, somewhat crunchier games.
Last but not least – Kinderspiel des Jahres – an award for the best game designed for younger gamers. Libellud took this award for the kid-friendly edition of its detective game Mysterium, called Mysterium Kids: Captain Echo’s Treasure, beating Carla Caramel (LOKI) and Gigamons (Blue Orange Games). Like its predecessor, this is a fully cooperative board game that plays in 21 minutes and sees players guessing clues from wonderfully (and weirdly) illustrated cards.
We’re sure we’ll be hearing even more about these games during the upcoming months (we just got our hands on a copy of Dorfromantik) and we send our congratulations to the winners.