Cardboard Edison begins the hunt for 2024’s best unpublished board game

Submissions are open for this year’s Cardboard Edison Award, which aims to celebrate the best currently unpublished board game designs.

Designers have until January 31 to submit their entries for the 2024 award, alongside a brief description of the game, a video overview and a rules document.

Eligible designs must not be publicly available through retail, secondary or print-on-demand markets including Kickstarter before June of this year.

Entries are welcomed from across the world, although the rulebook must be in English and components either in English or language neutral.

Last year’s award was won by Diatoms, a game in which players take on the role of Victorian naturalists growing microscopic mosiacs from algae.

Sabrina Culyaba’s creation was described as thematic, engaging, puzzly, welcoming, and surprising by the Cardboard Edison Award judging panel, who cited its “really lovely” sampling mechanic and high replayability.

Previous winners have include Castell, currently ranked at about 1,300th place on BoardGameGeek, Animal Kingdoms and The Transcontinental.

Judges for the 2024 award include 25th Century Games founder Chad Elkins, Paverson Games co-founder Dave Beck and Protospiel Online co-organiser David Masnato.

Full details on how to enter this year’s awards are available at the Cardboard Edison website.