Galactic Cruise eyes Deutscher Spiele Preis to follow Golden Geek, Dice Tower Award wins; Ark Nova designer Wigge could take second title

Galactic Cruise could extend its run of major award wins after being named a top-three finalist in this year’s Deutscher Spiele Preis, the biggest community-voted board game award in Germany.

The space tourism-themed worker placement title faces competition in the final from Ark Nova creator Mathias Wigge, who could win the award again with just his second major design – the similarly zoo-themed Sanctuary.

Co-op app-driven design Boss Fighters QR, which was a nominee for this year’s Kennerspiel des Jahres, is also in the running for this year’s award, with the winner set to be announced at this year’s Spiel Essen game fair towards the end of October.

Winning the DSP would continue an impressive run of award success for Galactic Cruise, the first major release from US publisher Kinson Key Games – and extend a two-year success story which began with the title raising over $800,000 from more than 8,000 backers via its Kickstarter campaign.

The game, which was designed by TK King, Dennis Northcott and Koltin Thompson, has already been crowned game of the year, best strategy game and best game from a new designer by The Dice Tower, and was named Heavy Game of the Year in BoardGameGeek’s similarly high-profile Golden Geek Awards, in addition to being named a runner-up in the artwork and presentation and thematic game categories.

A win for Sanctuary would double down on Matthias Wigge’s success following the colossal performance of his debut design Ark Nova, which as well as becoming the second-highest ranked game on BoardGameGeek has been a sensation on digital gaming platform BoardGameArena, with more than 13 million games played since its online launch in May 2023..

Boss Fighters QR, meanwhile, gives designers Michael Palm and Lukas Zach another shot at the DSP title three years after their Spiel des Jahres-winning Dorfromantik finished second in the German community award to Planet Unknown.

The pair have already come close to another major German award this year, with Boss Fighters QR one of three games nominated for the Kennerspiel des Jahres alongside Moon Colony Bloodbath and eventual winner Rebirth.

That latter title, which made designer Reiner Knizia the first person to complete a clean sweep of the Spiel des Jahres, Kennerspiel des Jahres and Kinderspiel des Jahres awards, finished sixth in this year’s DSP vote.

The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship, another game which has already enjoyed significant awards success this year, finished just outside the top three finalists in this year’s DSP.

Matt Leacock’s game won both Best Cooperative Game and Best Thematic Game at this year’s Golden Geeks as well as Medium Game of the Year.

Take Time, which won the Austrian game of the year and Swiss Gamers Award this year, took fifth place in the DSP, ahead of Rebirth, Cozy Stickerville, River of Gold, Star Trek: Captain’s Chair and Forest Shuffle – Dartmoor.

Asmodee-owned studios secured four places in the Top 10: Z-Man with Fate of the Fellowship, Libellud with Take Time, Unexpected Games with Cozy Stickerville and Lookout with Forest Shuffle – Dartmoore – although none managed to break into the top three.

Last year’s DSP was won by Tomáš Holek’s space exploration eurogame SETI, which also had a triumphant tour of the 2025 board game awards scene.

Other recent DSP winners have included Planet Unknown in 2023, Ark Nova in 2022 and Lost Ruins of Arnak in 2021, following The Crew, Wingspan, Azul and Terraforming Mars among winners from the previous decade.

The 2026 DSP is open to standalone games released in German between May 1, 2025 and April 30 this year, with voting open to people living in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Merz Verlag, which has presented the award since 1990, said “many thousands” of people voted during the three-month voting period.

The children’s DSP has also named its top three finalists: Mooki Island from designer Florian Sirieix, Paleolino from Marco Teubner, and Toriki: The Castaway Island by Wojciech Grajkowski.