The Spiel der Spiele, Austria’s Game of the Year awards, have been awarded since 2001.  The judges have always had a thing for lesser known Reiner Knizia designs (previous winners include King Arthur, Tal der Abenteuer, and Ramses Pyramid) and in the most recent award, they decided to add to the list.  Mmm!, a cooperative dice game with a recommended age of 5 years old, was selected as Game of the Year.  It’s the first time that a children’s game has taken home the big prize in the history of the award.  I know that fellow OGer Eric Martin is a fan of the game, so those wacky Austrians may know what they’re doing.  At any rate, it further adds to their love of Reiner, as he easily has more winners and recommendations than any other designer.  The judges also awarded their Special Prize to Uwe Rosenberg’s Patchwork, as an outstanding 2-player game.

One of the cool things about the SdS is that the recommendations are organized into different categories–for example, Games for Experts, Games for Friends, etc.  Here are all the award winners and recommended games, together with their designers.  Congratulations to all of these talented individuals!

Spiel der Spiele
Mmm! (Reiner Knizia)

Special Prize
Patchwork (Uwe Rosenberg)

Games for Experts
Orleans (Reiner Stockhausen)
Progress: Evolution of Technology (Andrei Novac, Agnieszka Kopera)

Games for Friends
Bermuda (Carlo Lanzavecchia)
Broom Service (Andreas Pelikan, Alexander Pfister)
Ludix (Niek Neuwahl)
Ugo! (Ronald Hoekstra, Thomas Jansen, Patrick Zuidhof)
Vienna (John King)

Games for Families
Cacao (Phil Walker-Harding)
Drachenhort (Reiner Knizia)
Hamsterbacke (Francesco Berardi)
Loony Quest (Larent Escoffier, Franck David)

Games for Kids
Crazy Coconuts (Walter Schneider)
Fliegenschmaus (Dietmar Keusch)
Push-a-Monster (Wolfgang Dirscherl, Manfred Reindl)
Schatz-Rabatz (Karin Hetling)

Griffin Scroll (Best Sci-Fi/Fantasy Game)
XCOM: The Board Game (Eric Lang)