As most regular readers of this website know, every February I post my Designer of the Year article, in which I choose the person who I feel created the best collection of games during the previous calendar year.  One of the criteria that goes into that selection is how well the titles do with the various Game of the Year awards, many of which aren’t announced until late in the year (in fact, the winners of the IGAs weren’t revealed until this week).  I could delay the article until all the information is available, but that wouldn’t be any fun—nothing is less newsworthy than a 2015 award that’s posted in September of 2016.  So what I do instead is estimate how the awards will turn out.  This has worked very well over the years for two reasons:  first, my projections are usually pretty good; and second, even when they’re not, the DotY decision isn’t such a close one that they become the determining factor.

In 2015, however, neither of those things happened.  Hence, this follow-up note.  In order to set the stage, let me summarize my February article.  2015 was an amazing year for designers, quite possibly the best we’ve ever seen.  After reviewing the record, I concluded there were four designers with more or less equally stunning portfolios:

• Eric Lang (Blood Rage, Game of Thrones Card Game, XCOM: The Board Game)
• Matt Leacock (Pandemic Legacy: Season 1, Thunderbirds)
• Simone Luciani (The Voyages of Marco Polo, Grand Austria Hotel, Council of Four)
• Alexander Pfister (Mombasa, Isle of Skye, Broom Service)

I finally decided to give the award to Leacock, based on the enormous buzz and significant impact of Pandemic Legacy.  The others finished in a three-way tie for second place.  I didn’t anticipate that the results of the Game of the Year awards would do much to affect that decision.

So what’s happened since I posted that piece?  Pandemic Legacy hasn’t done quite as well with the major awards as most thought it would and Pfister’s games have done a lot better than anyone could have expected.  Check it out:

The SdJ’s were announced in July.  Codenames won the big prize, but in what most considered at least a mild upset, Isle of Skye beat out Pandemic Legacy for the Kennerspiel award.

Next were the DSP’s.  This time, it was Mombasa’s turn to win.  Pandemic Legacy finished fourth and Pfister was the only designer with two top 10 games, as Isle of Skye wound up seventh.

Finally, the IGA Multiplayer award came down to a head-to-head matchup between Mombasa and Pandemic Legacy and the former game won rather handily.  Isle of Skye also got a nomination.  Bruno Cathala’s year also got better, as his 7 Wonders: Duel won the 2-player award and his Raptor was nominated.

So what we have is an historic year for Alexander Pfister.  Three of his 2015 games won major awards and no one else has ever done that in a single year.  Ever!  He wound up with four major wins in all and I’m pretty sure that’s a record as well.  And, oh yeah, his fourth 2015 title, Oh My Goods!, also got some pretty good reviews.  It’s a Golden Year for Herr Pfister and there really can’t be any doubt that he is 2015’s Designer of the Year.

Now, in the rare instances when I’ve had to make changes following the awards season, I’ve simply let the newcomer join the originally named designer and declared co-winners of the award.  After all, you hate taking something away from someone.  But I don’t think I can do that this year and maintain any semblance of credibility.  As remarkable an achievement as Pandemic Legacy was, Pfister’s year just wound up being too good.  So he’s the sole winner and Matt Leacock will just have to try again next year.  Sorry, Matt.

So belated congratulations to Alexander Pfister, who is now officially the Designer of the Year for 2015!  It was an amazing 12 months and the honor is richly deserved.  And while I’m at it, let me redo my rankings for the other leading designers of last year.  Again, this was an astonishingly great year for designers and any of these other seven individuals would have had a strong chance to win the award in a normal year.  Here are the final rankings, with their leading games in parentheses.

1. Alexander Pfister (Mombasa, Isle of Skye, Broom Service)
2. Simone Luciani (Voyages of Marco Polo, Grand Austria Hotel, Council of Four)
3. Eric Lang (Blood Rage, Game of Thrones Card Game, XCOM: The Board Game)
4. Bruno Cathala (7 Wonders: Duel, Raptor)
5. Matt Leacock (Pandemic Legacy, Thunderbirds)
6. Vlaada Chvatil (Codenames, Through the Ages: A New Story)
7. Daniele Tascini (Voyages of Marco Polo, Council of Four)
8. Andreas Pelikan (Isle of Skye, Broom Service)