Forest Shuffle scoops German’s biggest community-voted board game award, Sky Team and White Castle also impress
Woodland-themed tableau-building card game Forest Shuffle has triumphed in this year’s Deutscher Spiele Preis, the biggest community-voted board game award in Germany.
The game is only the second published design from mononymous designer Kosch, following his 2022 debut FYFE, and marks the first Deutscher Spiele Preis win for publisher Lookout Spiele since Uwe Rosenberg’s Agricola in 2008.
The DSP is Forest Shuffle’s first major award win despite a string of nominations since its release last year, including being ‘recommended’ in the 2024 Kennerspiel des Jahres contest and picking up nominations for Golden Geek Medium Game of the Year and Board Game Quest’s Best Card Game.
This year’s Spiel des Jahres winner Sky Team added to its bulging cabinet of awards by picking up the second-place prize, while small box Edo-period Japan worker placement game The White Castle finished in third place.
While nominally a ‘family games’ award like the SdJ, Deutscher Spiele Preis-winning games have varied heavily in complexity and play time over the last few years.
Recent winners have included The Crew, Planet Unknown, Lost Ruins of Arnak, Wingspan and Terraforming Mars.
Ark Nova is the most complex game to win the award since Mombasa in 2016, according to ‘game weight’ ratings compiled on BoardGameGeek.
Azul was the most recent design to scoop both prizes in the same year, in 2018, with Dominion the last game to do so prior to that in 2009.
The DSP has been running since 1990, when Catan designer Klaus Teuber’s Hoity Toity came away with the inaugural prize. The award is presented annually at the Spiel Essen game fair.
Votes are only counted from people who live in Germany, Austria and Switzerland for games published between May 1 and April 30 each year.
Deutscher Spiele Preis 2024 – Full Results
First place: Forest Shuffle by Kosch, published by Lookout Spiele / Asmodee
Second place: Sky Team by Luc Remond, published by Scorpion Masque and Kosmos
Third place: The White Castle by Sheila Santos and Israel Cendrero, published by Kosmos and Devir
Fourth place and below:
- Darwin’s Journey by Simone Luciani and Nestore Mangone, published by Skellig Games / ThunderGryph Games
- Too Many Bones by Adam Carlson and Josh J Carlson, published by Frosted Games and Chip Theory Games
- Revive by Kristian Amundsen Østby, Helge Meissner, Anna Wermlund and Eilif Svensson, published by Pegasus Spiele and Aporta Games
- Harmonies by Johan Benvenuto, published by Libellud / Asmodee
- Obsession by Dan Hallagan, published by Strohmann Games and Kayenta Games
- Keep The Heroes Out! by Luís Brüeh, published by Mirakulus and Brueh Games
- Nucleum by Simone Luciani and Dávid Turczi, published by Giant Roc and Board & Dice
