In the Footsteps of Darwin, Captain Flip and Sky Team in the running for Spiel des Jahres 2024

The games in the running for this year’s Spiel des Jahres awards have been revealed.

Spiel des Jahres is known as the industry’s most prestigious award for board and card games and is awarded annually by a jury of Germany game critics. Recent Spiel des Jahres winners include Cascadia, Micro Macro: Crime City and Dorfromantik.

The full list of nominees across all three categories can be found below:

Spiel des Jahres 2024
In the Footsteps of Darwin (Designed by Grégory Grard and Matthieu Verdier & Published by Sorry We Are French): This game sees players step into the shoes of junior naturalists who have just arrived aboard the Beagle to help Charles Darwin finish his book, On the Origin of Species. During the game, players study animals, carry out cartographic surveys, publish findings and develop theories.

Captain Flip (Designed by Paolo Mori and Remo Conzadori & Published by PlayPunk): On your turn, draw a tile from the bag. If you like it, keep it. If not, flip it. Then place it on your board to form your crew. The game features nine characters and four boards with different tactics.

Sky Team (Designed by Luc Rémond & Published by Cosmos/Scorpion Masqué): A co-op game for two players, Sky Team sees you play a pilot and co-pilot at the controls of an airliner.

Kinderspiel des Jahres 2024 (Children’s game of the Year)
Große kleine Edelsteine (Designed by Wolfgang Warsch & Published by Schmidt): Some gems are missing from the royal crown. Players must search for them with the little goblins. Some are the same shape but slightly different sizes… With a keen eye and a bit of luck, you must secure the right stones for the crown and collect victory points.

Magic Keys (Designed by Markus Slawitschek and Arno Steinwender & Published by Game Factory/Happy Baobab): This gem-collecting push-your-luck game sees players roll the dice to move forward on the road. When a player stops at a space with a key, they can try to open the treasure chest. If the key was a ‘true key’, the chest will open and they’ll receive gems as reward. The further along the road you go, the more gems there are inside a chest.

Taco Kitten Pizza (Designed by Dave Campbell and Thierry Denoual & Published by Blue Orange): A junior version of Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza.

Kennerspiel des Jahres 2024 (recognising excellence for more complex games)
e-Mission/Daybreak (Designed by Matt Leacock and Matteo Menapace & Published by Schmidt): A co-operative game about climate action. Each player controls a world power, deploying policies and technologies to dismantle the engine of global heating and build resilient societies that protect people from life-threatening crises. If you draw down global emissions to net-zero, you all win.

The Guild of Merchant Explorers (Designed by Matthew Dunstan and Brett J. Gilbert & Published by Skellig Games / AEG):In The Guild of Merchant Explorers, players journey over seas, mountains, deserts, and grasslands to establish trade routes between cities, climb discovery towers and visit new villages.

Ticket to Ride Legacy – Legends of the West (Designed by Rob Daviau, Matt Leacock and Alan R. Moon & Published by Days of Wonder): This legacy take on Ticket to Ride sees players embark on 12 journeys across North America as 19th century pioneers. As the story progresses, players will open frontier boxes that unlock new rules, content, and many more surprises.

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