In addition to everything else associated with it, Essen represents the unofficial end of the annual game award season. We’ve already mentioned the a la carte results which were announced there. A newer tradition is the revelation of which of three nominated games won the Deutscher Spiele Preis award. The top 10 finishers were announced earlier, but the order of the top three were held back until last week. We now know that the DSP winner is SETI, designed by Tomas Holek and published by CGE. Endeavor: Deep Sea takes the second spot and Bomb Busters finishes third. The complete DSP top 10, together with their designers, is listed below.
- SETI – Tomas Holek
- Endeavor: Deep Sea – Carl de Visser, Jarratt Gray
- Bomb Busters – Hisashi Hayashi
- Castle Combo – Gregory Grard, Mathieu Roussel
- Faraway – Johannes Goupy, Corentin Lebrat
- Civolution – Stefan Feld
- Blood on the Clocktower – Steven Medway
- Slay the Spire – Gary Dworetsky, Anthony Giovannetti, Casey Yano
- Apiary – Connie Vogelmann
- Dune: Imperium-Uprising – Paul Dennen
Best Children’s Game: Little Alchemists – Matus Kotry
More awards news. Back during GenCon, the Dice Tower awards were announced and that resulted in a win for SETI as well. Here are the ten nominated games, together with any category wins those games captured:
- SETI – Game of the Year, Best Strategy Game
- Andromeda’s Edge (Luke Laurie)
- Bomb Busters – Best Co-op Game, Most Innovative
- Fromage (Matthew O’Malley)
- Harmonies (Johan Benvenuto)
- LotR: Duel for Middle-Earth (Antoine Bauza, Bruno Cathala) – Best 2-Player Game
- River of Gold (Keith Piggott)
- River Valley Glassworks (Adam Hill) – Best Welcoming Game
- Rock Hard: 1977 (Jackie Fox) – Best Theming
- Unconscious Mind (Laskas, Johnny Pac, Yoma, Antonio Zax)
In addition to these games, Flip 7 was chosen as the Best Party Game, Draft & Write Records was selected as the Best Solo Game, and Reiner Knizia’s Through the Desert was chosen as the Best Reprint, over a quarter of a century after it was first released!
So let’s summarize the results of the major gaming awards. France’s As d’Or award won’t be awarded until next February, but the other results are in and here’s how last year’s leading games fared:
- SETI won the DSP, the IGA (multiplayer), the Golden Geeks (heavy game), the Dice Tower, and was one of the three Meeples Choice Award winners (it finished third);
- Bomb Busters took the SdJ and finished first in the Meeples Choice;
- Endeavor: Deep Sea won the Kennerspiel and was one of the Meeples Choice winners;
- Castle Combo won the a la carte and the Golden Geeks (light game);
- LotR: Duel for Middle-Earth won the IGA (2-player);
- Star Trek: Captain’s Chair won the IGA (solo);
- Harmonies won the Golden Geek (middleweight game).
It was a great year for games and both Bomb Busters and Endeavor: Deep Sea were repeatedly honored, but as far as the awards were concerned, the dominant game was SETI.
