One of my favorite of the lesser known annual game awards is the Jogo do Ano, Spiel Portugal’s Game of the Year, and they just announced their five nominees for 2023. Bucking the current trend towards honoring lighter designs, the Jogo do Ano, which has been around since 2007, focuses almost exclusively on heavier titles. For example, the last three winners are Imperial Steam, Imperial Struggle, and Barrage. Here are the nominated games this year, together with their designers:
- Carnegie (Xavier Georges)
- Federation (Dimitri Perrier, Matthieu Verdier)
- Lacrimosa (Gerard Ascensi, Ferran Renalias)
- Tiletum (Simone Luciani, Daniele Tascini)
- Weather Machine (Vital Lacerda)
This is Luciani’s sixth JdA nomination, more than any other designer. His only win was for Barrage. Lacerda, who won previously for Lisboa, had his fifth game nominated. Tascini now has four nominations and Georges (who won earlier for Troyes) now has three.
The results will be announced later this year. Congratulations to all the nominated designers!
We are happy to see two games that we publish on this list — Federation and Weather Machine. Thanks to the JdA for recognizing the accomplishments of the designers of these two fine games.
Rick Soued, Eagle-Gryphon Games
The best recent game out of Portugal that I know about and own is EVORA. Too bad it had no USA Distribution. It’s wonderful.