The Golden Box Awards, voted on by members of Japan’s board game industry, crowns Umataka as game of the year -

Umataka, a worker placement game centred around hunter-gatherers making traditional pottery in ancient Japan, has been named game of the year in the latest Golden Box Board Game Awards.

The annual contest was launched three years ago modeled on the American film industry’s Academy Awards, with the aim of recognising the work of Japanese designers and artists through judging by their peers.

Umataka, designed by Mukai and Napopora, sees players compete with their worker – and dog! – meeples to hunt, cook, gather jade and craft pottery during Japan’s neolithic Jomon period in what is now the Niigata Prefecture.

Publisher Dotakusha – which means Bronze Bell House – says it specialises in games themed around the history of the region, known for its ‘flame pottery’ artifacts.

This year’s award for Outstanding Game Design went to Merchants of the Bazaar, a real-time negotiation game in which exactly six or seven players are split into traders and merchants, and must exchange cards to gain the highest score. The game, designed by Party Taro, is published in Japan by Megalomaniac Games.

Hanayama’s version of Mr Diamond, a memory game about trying to collect as many ‘real’ diamonds as possible from a board containing some fixed gems, triumphed in the Best Production category, beating competition from the Japanese version of Slay the Spire: The Board Game and Rensaw Bingo.

Not for Me, from Lake in the Games, picked up the Art Award for the work by hoteltokyo, Rensaw Bingo won for best graphic design thanks to iD Creative, and Bistro Cosmopolite for best rulebook, which was described as a “painstaking translation” by Yui Nakamura.

Each winner will receive a golden board game box as a trophy.

The 2024 Golden Box Board Game Awards in full:

Best Picture

Umataka (Dotakusha)

Nominees
Quiz Sugoroku Kabu-ru (Board Game Shop Asobiba)
Monster Hex (Game NOWA)

Outstanding Game Design

Merchants of the Bazaar (Megalomaniac Game)

Nominees
Revolve! (One More Game!)
Game design: Katsura Kajino

Bam, bang, bang! (Rabbit Garden)
Game design: Konabe Kurizaka

Art Award

“Not for me” (Lake in the Games)
Artwork: hoteltokyo

Nominees
Divee! (Harvest Valley)
Artwork: Misaki Shimada

The Cat and the Tower” (Arclight)
Artwork: Namiki

Graphic Design Award

Rensaw Bingo (Arclight)
Graphic design: iD Creative

Nominees
Shinjuku (Rigole)
Illustrator: Rokkakudo DADA
Art direction and component design: Makoto Inoue

Baronismo (Whale Ball)
Graphic design: Emi Kuji