Take Time follows Swiss Gamers Award win by securing Austrian game of the year prize

Co-operative puzzle challenge game Take Time has doubled down on its award wins this year by picking up the Austrian game of the year prize.

Alexi Piovesan and Julien Prothière’s design fought off competition from Florian Maas’ citybuilding game Project Skyline and Hjalmar Hach and Lorenzo Silva’s Railroad Ink sequel Railroad Tiles to take the 2026 Spiel der Spiele award.

The win comes three months after Take Time triumphed in this year’s Swiss Gamers Award, while the game has also picked up a ‘recommended’ nod in the highly prized 2026 Spiel des Jahres competition.

Take Time publisher Libellud previously won the Austrian game prize’s family game award for Dixit in 2010, while the title’s co-designer Julien Prothière won the family game category with Featherweight Fiesta in 2024, and the ‘friends game of the year’ award with March of the Crabs the same year.

The Austrian Game Academy, which runs the Spiel der Spiele award each year, picked out Jon Perry’s Hot Streak as the winner of its ‘friends game of the year’ prize this year, while the expert game award went to Saltfjord, designed by Kristian Amundsen Østby and Eilif Svensson.

Hot Streak has been on a run of award wins this year, with the chaotic mascot racing game having picked up best party game and light game of the year in BoardGameGeek’s Golden Geek Awards, casual game of the year in the American Tabletop Awards, and a ‘recommended’ accolade in the Spiel des Jahres.

Markus Slawitscheck’s design Morty Sorty Magic Shop – which is in the running for this year’s Spiel des Jahres prize – was named best family game in the Austrian awards, while Faouzi Boughida and Mathieu Rivero’s creation Duel for Cardia was named best card game.

Boss Fighters QR, by Michael Palm and Lukas Zach, was named ‘trend’ game of the year for its innovative use of QR codes in-game, while the 2026 best kids game prize went to Emanuele Briano’s Beast Selfie.

Austria’s Spiel der Spiele has been handed out since 2001, when it was won by Catan designer Klaus Teuber’s colonisation game Entdecker: Exploring New Horizons – a reworking of his 1996 design Entdecker.

Last year’s overall winner was galactic gardening-themed set collection game Gloomies.

The 2026 Spiel der Spiele Awards in full

Game of the Year
Take Time – designed by Alexi Piovesan and Julien Prothière (published by Libellud)

Children’s Game
Beast Selfie – Emanuele Briano (HUCH!)

Family Game
Morty Sorty Magic Shop – Markus Slawitscheck (Schmidt Spiele)

‘Friends’ Game
Hot Steak – Jon Perry (Strohmann Games)

Expert Game
Saltfjord – Kristian Amundsen Østby and Eilif Svensson (HUCH!)

Card Game
Duel for Cardia – Faouzi Boughida and Mathieu Rivero (Hans im Glück)

‘Trend’ Game
Boss Fighters QR – Michael Palm and Lukas Zach (Pegasus Spiele)