The committee for the Spiel Des Jahres or "game of the year" has announced this years nominations for the three awards they issue each year.
Spiel Des Jahres
The nominees for the main award are fairly diverse. Codenames the hit of Gen Con 2015 is a surprise to almost no one who has been paying attention. Having already infiltrated the mass market stores it is hard to deny that this clever little deserves to be on this list. Imhotep just came out in Germany in March of this year and has not had an English release yet. Looking to provide a family weight game involving strategy and a little bit of take that has it fitting in nicely. Karuba the final nominees is game maker HABA's first foray into games intended for older audiences.
They have additionally give five honorable mentions
Kennerspiel Des Jahres
Nominations for the Kennerspiel or connoisseurs category is filled three massive hits from this year. With Both Pandemic Legacy: Season 1 and T.I.M.E Stories being in the top 30 games of all time on Board Game Geek it is not surprising that either of those was nominated. The first nominee Isle of Skye is only ranked 250 on BGG but has a solid pedigree behind it. Having been released by Lookout/Mayfair Games this highly strategic tile laying game provides a lot of opportunity for very intricate strategies to come into play. Pandemic Legacy: Season 1 shot up to the number one spot on BGG within 2 months of its release. Widely regarded as one of the best implementations of the legacy concept by designers Rob Daviau and Matt Leacock and being widely regarded as one of the best selling games within the last year this was an obvious nomination. Finally we have another legacy style game with T.I.M.E Stories which has already had three expansions released and more announced this promises to be a great cooperative legacy game which can be played in decent sized chunks.
The three honorable mentions were quite well regarded as well
Kinderspiel Des Jahres
The Kinderspiel which often is the category that surprises the most has fewer surprises than normal this year. With at least one title that is a reimplementation of a well known game for the older crowd in this group. Leo Muss zum Friseur which as already won the Austrian children's game of the year for 2015 is a great little press your luck game. Stone Age Junior is a clever reimplementation of the older game Stone Age designed by Marco Teubner. Finally is Mmm! which is a great little cooperative game well suited for introducing a child to the cooperative genre.
Honorable mentions
The committee for the Spiel Des Jahres or "game of the year" has announced this years nominations for the three awards they issue each year.
