Everything you need to know about the Spiel des Jahres
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"Oscars" "pump" movies, music lovers have "Grammys", and board games have "Spiel des Jahres".
"Spiel des Jahres" ("Game of the Year" in Germany) is one of the most famous and prestigious awards in the world of board games. Awarded every year in Germany by a jury consisting of game journalists, the main focus is on games for family leisure.
The main prize of the "Spiel des Jahres" award in 2015 went to the game "Colt Express". And as soon as it became known, the number of searches for "Colt Express" on boardgameprices.com doubled.
Winner of the "Spiel des Jahres 2015" award - the game "Colt Express"
Such popular games as Carcassonne, Ticket to Ride, Colonizers and Dominion have all been laureates of the Spiel des Jahres award.
Although the Spiel des Jahres award is one of the most hyped tabletop events of the year, there are a few things you may not know about it.
EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE SPIEL DES JAHRES AWARD
The most famous board game award, but not the oldest
The Spiel des Jahres is the most famous board game award, but came later than several other major industry awards.
The "Spiel des Jahres" award was founded in 1979, 4 years after the appearance of the "Origin Award" (USA, 1975) and 2 years after the "Speelgoed van het Jaar" (Netherlands, 1977).
WHAT MAKES A GAME GAME OF THE YEAR
The winner needs to have not only excellent gameplay, but also well-written rules, functional and beautiful design, as well as high replayability.
Winner of the "Spiel des Jahres 1998" award - the game "Elfenland" - famous for its attractive aesthetics
Since the prize is German, the winner must also have the German version.
MEMBERS OF THE JURY
At the moment, the Spiel des Jahres jury consists of ten people. All of them are board game journalists from German-speaking countries. Each jury member tries hundreds of different games a year to come up with the shortlist for the award.
The judges of the Spiel des Jahres meet in person only four times a year, but exchange messages on their online forum.
AWARD NOMINEES
The Spiel des Jahres jury meets in May to draw up the final list of nominees. It is compiled on the basis of personal lists of the jury, each of which includes 20 selected games from the previous year, before the award.
The final list of five nominees, ie. contenders for the main prize, accompanied by a list of games recommended by jury members. And even to get to him is already honorable.
A HUMBLE AWARD CEREMONY
The laureate of the "Spiel des Jahres" award is announced in June, at a press conference in Berlin.
There is no prize money in the Spiel des Jahres award, but getting its logo on the box of your game is probably one of the best moments of life for a publisher and game designer.
BEST RECOMMENDATION EVER
When evaluating games, the jury of the "Spiel des Jahres" award does not take into account their sales figures, but at the same time can improve them.
The increase in sales for a Spiel des Jahres nominee is around 10,000 copies, and the additional sales of a winner can be between 300,000 and 500,000 copies.