Two of the major Game of the Year awards announced their results recently.
The Deutscher Spiele Preis (DSP) award was announced last month. This is widely viewed as the German-based award that honors heavier games, at least when compared to the SdJ and KdJ awards (for example, Terraforming Mars won in 2017). However, for the second straight year, the award went to one of the picks of the SdJ jury. Last year, SdJ winner Azul got the nod and this year, the award goes to KdJ winner Wingspan. Here are the top 10 finishers, together with each game’s designer and publisher:
- Wingspan, by Elizabeth Hargrave (Stonemaier Games)
- The Taverns of Tiefenthal, by Wolfgang Warsch (Schmidt Spiele)
- Teotihuacan: City of Gods, by Daniele Tascini and Dávid Turczi (Board&Dice)
- Spirit Island, by R. Eric Reuss (Greater Than Games)
- Architects of the West Kingdom, by Shem Phillips and S.J. Macdonald (Garphill Games)
- Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game, by Ignacy Trzewiczek, Przemysław Rymer, and Jakub Łapot (Portal Games)
- Underwater Cities, by Vladimír Suchý (Delicious Games)
- Newton, by Nestore Mangone and Simone Luciani (Cranio Creations)
- Just One, by Ludovic Roudy and Bruno Sautter (Repos Production)
- Gloomhaven, by Isaac Childres (Cephalophair Games)
The DSP award for best children’s game went to Concept Kids, by Gaëtan Beaujannot, Alain Rivollet, and published by Repos.
The International Gamers Awards (IGA) were announced earlier this week. The best multiplayer game award went to Root, designed by Cole Wehrle and published by Leder Games. This is the third significant award won by Root—earlier, it was chosen as Game of the Year by both the Golden Geeks and the Dice Tower awards. The IGA award for best 2-player game went to Lincoln, designed by Martin Wallace and published by PSC Games. This is the fourth IGA award won by Wallace (earlier wins include Age of Steam, Age of Industry, and A Few Acres of Snow); this ties him with Uwe Rosenberg for most IGAs all time.
Congratulations to Hargrave, Wehrle, and Wallace for their selections by these very prestigious awards!
Can’t believe Wingspan beat a whole string of fantastically good games, who are these judges?
There are four groups that contribute to the DSP award, Matt, but the biggest contributor are gamers, voting via the Internet. So, as Pogo once said, we have seen the enemy and he is us. It’s no secret that the current trend in games is to make them as accessible as possible, without them being too simple. That trend seems to be reflected in the DSP voting over the last two years.
Pingback: 2019 DSP and IGA Award Winners Announced – Herman Watts
Hi Larry, ok that makes more sense, it is amazing how much nice components and great art coupled to simplistic gameplay appeal to the masses. I guess the majority of players will prefer games that make them feel smart, rather than ones that challenge them.
It’s actually very much like the film industry, where people flock to see the latest pablum put out by Disney.
Pingback: WoW Brettspiel, Lena Burkhardt, Zeit für Brettspiele ... Brettspiel News