Nominations are out! The jury selected a total of fifteen games for their longlist, ten for Spiel des Jahres and five for Kennerspiel des Jahres. Out of these games, three games each are nominated for the two awards and can hope to get the coveted meeple added to their covers on July 16.
Let’s dive straight into the nominations and recommendations, before we discuss how good (or bad) my predictions were and if the agreed with our Kennerspiel score.
Nominated for Spiel des Jahres 2023
Dorfromantik: The Board Game
1–6 players, 30–60 minutes, 8+ years, medium light (1.7), 100% Spiel
Probably the strongest contender for a nomination beforehand. No surprises here…
Fun Facts
4–8 players, 30 minutes, 8+ years, light (1.0), 100% Spiel
Together with That’s Not a Hat, designer Kasper Lapp had two entries with quite some buzz, though the algorithm wouldn’t pick it up and placed Fun Facts on #36 of the predictions.
Next Station: London
1–4 players, 25–30 minutes, 8+ years, light (1.4), 100% Spiel
This was the #1 prediction, so the nomination is a logical consequence, even though I didn’t see it being nominated.
Spiel des Jahres recommendations
- Akropolis: Having won the As d’Or and being placed #5 by the algorithm, “just” a recommendation is almost disappointing… 😉
- HITSTER: Only #18 by the algorithm, but I squeezed it in as an honourable mention. This could’ve been a strong contender for Spiel des Jahres, but it works best with a paid Spotify subscription, which really hampered its chances for a nomination.
- KuZOOkA: I’ve even had this down for a nomination, so a recommendation was expected in the end.
- MANTIS: This year’s obligatory jury suprise, just #173 prediction according to algorithm. Another simple card game by the Exploding Kittens publishers.
- QE: For me this was a candidate for a Kennerspiel nomination – in the end, the algorithm was right, predicting a place on the longlist for Spiel des Jahres.
- Sea Salt & Paper: At #17 of the predictions a near miss. Another fairly simple card game that was on many commentators’ lists.
- That’s Not a Hat: As mentioned with Fun Facts, this was another much discussed game. At #20, the algorithm actually gave it the better odds.
Nominated for Kennerspiel des Jahres 2023
Challengers!
1–8 players, 45 minutes, 8+ years, medium light (1.8), 0% Kennerspiel
Challengers! was definitely one of the jury members’ darlings and couldn’t possibly be absent from any predictions list. The algorithm put it on #16, I saw it amongst the nominations – for Spiel des Jahres… We’ll have more things to discuss on this topic in the follow-up predictions article.
IKI
2–4 players, 60–90 minutes, 14+ years, medium (3.0), 100% Kennerspiel
Even though the algorithm placed it #2 amongst the predictions, this game feels a bit like an underdog, partially because it was originally released in 2015, but didn’t receive much attention until its got a second edition. Now it’s nominated for the most prestigious award in board gaming!
Planet Unknown
1–6 players, 60–80 minutes, 10+ years, medium light (2.2), 7% Kennerspiel
The only Kennerspiel nomination I got dead-on right, even though the algorithm placed it only on #21 – again for the wrong award…
Kennerspiel des Jahres recommendations
- Council of Shadows: I even thought a nomination was possible, even though the algorithm placed it only #82. In the end probably a bit too heavy for a nomination.
- Mindbug: First Contact: Jury surprises, part 2. This one the algorithm had only as prediction #101. I can’t say I’ve heard much else about the game otherwise either, though it has a very famous name amongst its design team…
Special Awards 2023
Unlock!: Game Adventures
1–5 players, 30–60 minutes, 10+ years, medium light (2.4), 100% Kennerspiel
The jury also awarded two special awards this year, the first in five years and the first ever for a Kinderspiel. This honour goes to the Unlock! series in general, and to their latest installment in particular, which lifts the concept on a wonderful meta level by choosing the three popular games Mysterium, Ticket to Ride and Pandemic as background stories.
At this point in the history of Spiel des Jahres it is almost a running gag that Pandemic designer Matt Leacock has never won the main award. He was nominated three times with various Pandemic variants and received said last special award for Pandemic Legacy: Season 2. Now his game inspired another special award winner – but still no main award. Maybe the jury waits for Season 13 for that?
How good were the predictions?
This really is a drama in three acts: the decision of Kennerspiel or not, the algorithm picking the longlist, and finally my guts picking the shortlist.
Kennerspiel score
Of the fifteen games on the two longlists, the algorithm classified two wrong – both nominated for Kennerspiel des Jahres: Challengers! and Planet Unknown. The former was sorted as the lightest amongst the connoisseur games as presented by the jury, so at least that seems like a near miss, even though the algorithm was 100% convinced it should be on the Spiel des Jahres list. 🙈 Still, overall 87% correct ain’t too bad.
Longlist
This one’s pretty bad… 😅 The algorithm predicted a mere six out of fifteen games (40%) correctly. I can at least claim for myself that I predicted or mentioned honourably a further four games, bumping the accuracy to 67%, which is somewhat in line with previous years.
Shortlist
It’s not getting any better. This year, I only called three out of six nominations correctly – one of them for the wrong award. Two out of those predictions were “manual overrides” because the algorithm didn’t pick up those games at all. Overall, the weakest year so far for my predictions, it appears I need to adjust the algorithms a little bit.
That’s it for now, we’ll be back soon with a little more in-depth analyses on the six nominees and their chances of winning an award.