Spiel des Jahres Winners 2022

The verdict is in and the 2022 winner of the Spiel de Jahres award is out.

Today, we’re looking at the nominations and congratulating the 2022 Spiel des Jahres Winner.

MORE SPIEL DES JAHRES WINNERS: 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018

Spiel des Jahres 2022 Winner

Cascadia

Congratulations to Cascadia and its designer Randy Flynn for being the 2022 Spiel des Jahres recipient. 

Cascadia is an incredible game, and we even featured it as our best overall for nature games. The Spiel des Jahres judges pointed to its two-part puzzle, combing terrain and populating it with animals as one of the factors in its win. 

They also mentioned that it’s a “real feel-good game.” There’s always an important action available to players on every turn, but it may not be what you intended. This leads to compelling gameplay and an ever-shifting strategy. 

Spiel des Jahres Nominees 2022

Scout

Scout demonstrates how you don’t need a massive production value to be an amazing game. Scout puts players in the role of talent scouts for the circus as they book acts and rearrange the show to perform the most impressive show possible.

For a theme based on such a spectacularly visual event as the circus, Scout is a very minimalist card game that does an incredible job of serving an imaginative experience as well as an amazing game. 

Top Ten

Top Ten is a quirky little party game that seems to have grabbed the judges and never quite let go. 

In this party game, players are asked a theoretical question, and each player is given a number from 1 to 10. Players then need to argue the question and match their response to their number. With number 1 being the worst possible response and 10 being the best possible response. 

Players then argue their case and the “chief” puts all the responses in order. 

It’s a hilarious game where player interactions become more important than actually winning, which is the hallmark of any good party game. 

Recommended Games

In addition to the nominees and winner, the Spiel des Jahres jury also has a recommended list of games that should be on everyone’s radar. 

7 Wonders: Architects

echoes: Die Tänzerin (echoes: The Dancer)

So Kleever! (So Clover!)

Trek 12: Himalaya

Spiel des Jahres Criteria

The Spiel De Jahres is the most prestigious board game award in the industry. It is a private organization that started writing about board games and granting their favorites the award since 1979.

The Judges are all experts in the industry and the number of judges shifts as more are added to the panel or retire. There is no set number, so it’s constantly shifting. All judges are completely unbiased and do not receive any compensation for judging except for reimbursement for expenses to and from the judgment meetings.

Only nominations and winners are published. Among other criteria, the games being judged must be published in German. This is due to it being a German company, and only the German versions are judged. 

You may have noticed that Top Ten looks like a ton of fun, but there is currently only a German version out. Hopefully, with its success as a nominee, they’ll be able to adapt it into other languages soon. 

Some other criteria they look for are:

• New gaming concepts and how they’ve been realized.
• Player engagement.
• An organic playing experience.
• Rulesets and approachability. 
• Components and how they enhance the gaming experience.
• Artwork 

These are just some of the things they look for. If you’re interested in learning more, they have a very extensive FAQ section on their website. 

Congratulations to all of the nominees and the winners! Now it’s time to go try them out.

Have you tried any of 2022’s nominees or winners? What did you think? Let us know with a comment below. We’d love to hear from you!

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