In an interview with BoardGameWire last year<\/a> he said of Captain Flip, “When Paulo explained the rules, we already knew that we wanted to make the game because when he started to pitch the game, we were like, \u2018Oh, yes, that\u2019s clever. I want to play it.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201c…it\u2019s those kinds of spark and those kinds of feeling we are looking for \u2013 something that when you first heard of it, you say \u2018oh, that makes sense, obviously that\u2019s a good idea\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fellow nominee Sky Team, designed by Luc Remond, is a rare two-player-only game to be in the running for the award – the first since Targi in 2012, which itself came seven years after the last two-player-only nominee, Jambo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sky Team, which requires players to work together to successfully land an aeroplane, has proved a popular game since its release last year, and was named Best 2-Player & Cooperative Game in the Golden Geek Awards 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In The Footsteps of Darwin also has prior awards form, having nominated for France’s As d’Or and being named a Mensa Select Winner this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The game, from French designers Gr\u00e9gory Grard, Matthieu Verdier, sees players take on the role of junior naturalists who have just arrived aboard the Beagle to help Charles Darwin finish his book\u00a0On the Origin of Species.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThis year’s Kennerspiel des Jahres prize for more complex game – the main SdJ is aimed at family-weight titles – sees Pandemic creator Matt Leacock going up against himself thanks to nominations for co-op climate action game Daybreak (which has the much slicker name e-mission in Germany) and Ticket to Ride Legacy – Legends of the West.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite a storied history of board game designs, Leacock has never quite managed to win either the SdJ or Kennerspiel despite a string of nominations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Leacock was previously in the running with Pandemic in 2009, Roll Through The Ages in 2010 and Forbidden Island in 2011, and was nominated for Pandemic Legacy – Season One in the Kennerspiel competition in 2016. He did win a ‘special prize’ at the awards in 2018 for Pandemic Legacy – Season Two.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Leacock and his co-designers – Matteo Menapace for Daybreak, Rob Daviau and Alan R Moon for Ticket to Ride Legacy – face competition for this year’s Kennerspiel from strategic exploration game The Guild of Traveling Merchants, by Matthew Dunstan and Brett J Gilbert.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe nominations for this years children-focused Kinderspiel were Big little gems by Wolfgang Warsch, The Magic Keys by Markus Slawitschek and Arno Steinwender and Taco Cat Pizza Junior by Dave Campbell and Thierry Denoual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This year’s awards underline how international board gaming has become, with no German-speaking designers nominated for either the SdJ or Kennerspiel for the second time in three years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That is a marked difference from the late 1990s and 2000s, in which German-speaking designers dominated the nominations despite wins for games such as Ticket to Ride in 2004 and Dominion in 2009.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The winner’s of this year’s competition will be announced on July 21.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The full list of nominees: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Spiel des Jahres 2024<\/strong>Captain Flip by Paolo Mori and Remo Conzadori
Sky Team by Luc R\u00e9mond
Recommended
Nominated for Kennerspiel des Jahres 2024<\/strong>The Guild of Traveling Merchants by Matthew Dunstan and Brett J. Gilbert
Ticket to Ride Legacy \u2013 Legends of the West by Rob Daviau, Matt Leacock and Alan R. Moon
Recommended:
Nominated for Children’s Game of the Year 2024<\/strong>The Magic Keys by Markus Slawitschek and Arno Steinwender
Taco Cat Pizza Junior by Dave Campbell and Thierry Denoual
Recommended:
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