Today, the Spiel des Jahres Award nominations were announced.  There are three awards, a children’s game award (Kinderspiel des Jahres) and the two that interest us more, the “Advanced” or “Expert” Kennerspiel des Jahres and the main award, the Spiel des Jahres (which is often interpreted as the “Family Game” award).  This year there are three nominees in each category:

• Kinderspiel des Jahres
  Captain Silver by Wolfgang Dirscherl & Manfred Reindl
  Ice Cool by Brian Gomez
  Der Mysteriöse Wald (aka The Mysterious Forest) by Carlo A. Rossi
• Kennerspiel des Jahres
  EXIT: Das Spiel Inka Brand & Markus Brand
  Räuber der Nordsee (aka Raiders of the North Sea) by Shem Phillips
  Terraforming Mars by Jacob Fryxelius
• Spiel des Jahres
  Kingdomino by Bruno Cathala
  Magic Maze by Kasper Lapp
  Wettlauf nach El Dorado by Reiner Knizia

We’ve discussed the possible nominations a couple of times within the group, but nobody really had much idea this year.  Part of this is because we’ve not really engaged with many of these, though Kingdomino did come up and we are planning to play Terraforming Mars on 30^th May, so we will be able to make our minds up about that one then.  Fabled Fruit, Captain Sonar, Great Western Trail and The Grizzled also came up in our discussions and these were recommended by the Jury.  The winner of the Kinderspiel des Jahres will be announced in Hamburg on 19^th June, with the Spiel and Kennerspiel des Jahres a month later in Berlin on 17^th July.

– Image from spieldesjahres.de