The board game adaptation of the peaceful puzzle video game Dorfromantik has won the prestigious Spiel des Jahres Award, marking the first time a tabletop adaptation of a video game has won the lauded award. The German award, which translates to “Game of the Year,” is awarded to the top family-themed game as chosen by a jury of board game critics and reviewers. Challengers won the Kennerspiel des Jahres Award, which is focused on more complex games and Mysterium Kids won the children-themed Kinderspiel des Jahres Award. ย
Dorfromantik’s win is notable in that it marks the first time that an adaptation of a video game has won a Spiel des Jahres Award and shows the growing influence that crossover games has had on the tabletop industry.ย Dorfromantik, the video game, challenged players to use tiles to build an “idyllic” landscape using tiles, with players earning additional tiles for completing certain quests or “closing off” certain biomes by making sure that no more tiles of that same biome can be connected to it. The board game version added a campaign component, with certain tiles unlocked by completing certain milestones.ย
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Dorfromantik was published by Pegasus Spiele and designed by Michael Palm and Lukas Zach. Challengers,ย was designed by Johannes Krenner and Markus Slawitscheck and published by 1 More Time Games and Z-Man Games, whileย Mysterium Kidsย was designed by Antonin Boccara and Yves Hirschfeld and published by Libellud.ย
Last year’s winners include Cascadia, Living Forest, and Magic Mountain. Notable past winners of the Spiel des Jahres Awards include Azul, 7 Wonders, CATAN, and 7 Wonders. Many consider the Spiel des Jahres to be one of the most prestigious awards in all of gaming, although the jury only added awards for children’s games and complex games in recent years.
Congratulations to all the winners.ย
