The Spiel des Jahres jury announced their nominees and recommendations this morning. Congratulations to the nominees!
We’ve listed them below, but we’ve only put in the names of the German publishers. Links are to our past reviews.
Spiel des Jahres:
Just One by Ludovic Roudy & Bruno Sautter, Published by Repos
L.A.M.A. by Reiner Knizia, Published by Amigo
Werewords by Ted Alpsach, Published by Ravensburger
Kennerspiel des Jahres:
Carpe Diem by Stefan Feld, Published by alea
Detective by Przemysław Rymer, Ignacy Trzewiczek, & Jakub Łapot, Published by Portal
Wingspan by Elizabeth Hargrave, Published by Feuerland
Kinderspiel des Jahres:
Fabulantica by Marco Teubner, Published by Pegasus Spiele
Go Gecko Go! by Jürgen Adams, Published by Zoch
Tal der Wikinger by Marie und Wilfried Fort, Published by HABA
More information is available on the jury’s website. The winners will be announced on July 22 for the Spiel and Kennerspiel. The Kinderspiel winner will be announced June 24.
Pingback: Congratulations to the 2019 Spiel des Jahres nominees! – Herman Watts
I never heard of L.A.M.A. I can’t recall ever hearing the nominees and not even knowing the name of one of the titles. Thus, I cannot judge the game, but I enjoy the heck out of Werewords.
Wingspan deserves an award. Maybe they all deserve an award, but I like Wingspan. There many recognized female designers out there that I know of. This should be an interesting race for the Spiel!
While I have not played any of the nominees for Kennerspiel, two of them got middle of the road reviews from this very site and other review sites. Carpe Diem even looks bland. My question is should we start looking for a new awards committee/organization if Carpe Diem gets one of three nominations when there are probably a dozen that had better production and at least comparable gameplay elements? I have to admit reading reviews on the three nominations were underwhelming. Anyone else agree?
Will, there are many other gaming awards than the SdJ’s if you’re looking for alternate opinions, particularly if you’re interested in heavier games than the SdJ jury focuses on. In Germany, the winner of the Deutscher Spiele Preis award, better known as the DSP, is announced each year at Essen. These games tend to be a step up in complexity from the Kennerspiel winners and often include gamer’s games. The award has a good history, going back to 1990. The International Gamers Awards (IGA’s) have a 20 year history and also focus on meatier games–their results are announced in September. Then, there are the Golden Geeks and the Dice Tower awards, each of which recognize games in numerous categories, including Game of the Year winners. The Meeples Choice Awards cite the three favorite games of its voting group each year. There are many other awards, including quite a few national awards from different countries. No other award has anything near the impact of the SdJ, but there are plenty of other honors bestowed each year.