The Spiel Portugal game group has just announced its five nominees for its Jogo do Ano (Game of the Year) award. As opposed to most of the major game awards, which have been trending toward lighter and more accessible games recently, the JdA favors heavier fare. The group has been awarding the JdA since 2006. Last year’s winner was the excellent Barrage.
Here are the nominees for 2021, together with their designers. Congratulations to all the nominated games!
Dune: Imperium (Paul Dennen)
Imperial Struggle (Jason Matthews, Ananda Gupta)
On Mars (Vital Lacerda)
Praga Caput Regni (Vladimir Suchy)
Viscounts of the West Kingdom (Shem Phillips, SJ Macdonald)
I think one of these guys has home field advantage…
You may be right. Lacerda has been nominated twice before (for Vinhos and Lisboa) and won for the latter game, so it’s not a guarantee. We’ll have to see when the winners are announced.