The Spiel des Jahres 2016 winners have been announced!

 

For the Spiel des Jahres or family game of the year, the winner is Vlaada Chvátil’s Codenames. This comes as no surprise, as no game has been played more by my regular gaming group this year. The fact that players can jump in and out whenever, and that games only take ~ 15 minutes make this a perfect party game. I am excited to see Vlaada win such a prestigious award, since he has been one of my favorite designers for years, but most of his designs are at the deep end of the game complexity pool.

 

For the Kennerspiel des Jahres or Expert game of the year, Alexander Pfister and Andreas Pelickan’s Isle of Skye took the prize. This marks the second year running that this design duo has won this honor, having won last year with Broom Service. While the other nominees Pandemic Legacy and Time Stories were both more innovative titles Isle of Skye is a very solid choice for this award. At the very least, this ensures that expansions are on the way for this title, as its publisher will be eager to capitalize on the sales this award is sure to bring. Isle of Skye joins a host of other successful tile laying games which have won top honors in the past.

 

So congratulations to the winners and nominees. For a full list of nominees check out my earlier write up. Overall 2015 was a solid year for board games, and I can’t wait to see what the rest of 2016 brings to the table.