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.
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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.
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Wingspan winning again after Azul last year feels like the DSP is just following the SdJ jury’s lead. I thought Spirit Island was the heavier pick that deserved it.
Wow, wasn’t expecting a comment on a 7 year old award! But I always welcome the chance to talk about gaming awards, for the small number of folks who care about them.
The DSP award has always been strongly influenced by the SdJ’s, with the SdJ winner almost always finishing in the top 5 of the DSP. Having a game win both is less common, although it’s been more likely since the SdJ jury started awarding the Kennerspiel, for the “connoisseur” games that are more in the DSP’s wheelhouse. In the period you’re talking about, Lucas, the DSP seemed to be favoring lighter games than it had in previous years (when they had gone with some fairly heavy titles, like Terraforming Mars, for the 5 preceding years). Azul and Wingspan were something of a departure from this, as was The Crew and Arnak, which won the next two years. Lately, it’s been a mixed bag, with wins for Ark Nova and SETI, sprinkled along with lighter titles like Planet Unknown and Forest Shuffle.
I’d say the win for Azul, the 2018 SdJ winner, was the more surprising result. It was (and is) a popular game, but based on what had come before, I would have thought that Gaia Project, or even Rajas of the Ganges, would have been a more likely winner. Wingspan was less of a shock. It was a gaming phenomenon, just like Catan was (not to the same extent, but still wildly popular). It’s not a game I care for, but there’s no questioning its vast popularity and the terrific job it’s done in bringing many people into the hobby (particularly, a lot of women). Weightwise, a more standard DSP winner that year would have been Teotihuacan or Underwater Cities (despite its fourth place finish, I think Spirit Island was a bit too complex and too niche to win). But Wingspan, while still lighter, is still a middleweight and the way it had taken the hobby by storm meant its DSP win wasn’t particularly surprising, IMO.