Spiel des Jahres and Kennerspiel des Jahres 2011: Winners revealed!

BRANDORA - June 2011

Germany’s Spiel des Jahres 2011 (Game of the Year) and Germany’s first ever Kennerspiel des Jahres (Expert’s Game of the Year) were recognized at the 33rd annual awards ceremony organized by the Spiel des Jahres association. On 27 June 2011 nine jury members chose their favourites from three nominees for each category at the Hotel Esplanade in Berlin. In the category Spiel des Jahres the expert jury recognized “Qwirkle” by Susan McKinley Ross (Publisher: Schmidt Spiele). The strategy game “7 Wonders” by Antoine Bauza (Publisher: Repos Production, distributed in Germany by Asmodee) won Germany’s first ever Kennerspiel des Jahres 2011 Award.

“Qwirkle” is fast-paced, clever and easy to learn

108 black wooden blocks featuring different shapes and colours constitute the key element of this self-explanatory tile-placing game. Each player draws blocks from the bag and attempt to create lines of shapes and colours. But blocks added to a line must share the same characteristic as the blocks that are already in the line. At the end of each turn, players score points. They score an additional six-point bonus whenever they complete a line of six blocks and thus create a so-called Qwirkle. “Qwirkle is our Game of the Year 2011, because it comes with simple rules and can be played immediately. It’s perfect entertainment for young and not-so-young players. You just want to play it again and again!” said Spiel des Jahres spokesman Bernhard Löhlein.

“7 Wonders” meets all Kennerspiel des Jahres criteria

The award-winning strategy game “7 Wonders” revolves around the development of civilisations. Players act as sovereigns of the Ancient World. In the course of three Ages, they have to produce goods, construct buildings, advance in science, and refine their art of warfare. Major element of this unusual strategy game is cards. Cards continuously move around as players keep them or pass them on according to their current situation. While each player strives to expand their own city, they have to cooperate in order to create one of the Seven Wonders of the World. “7 Wonders meets the criteria for an outstanding expert’s game at all points. 7 Wonders is amazingly versatile and highly addictive. The game already achieved cult status among ambitious gamers. To us, 7 Wonders is one of the strongest games currently available on the German market”, said Bernhard Löhlein.

Each year, the Spiel des Jahres jury sorts newly released family and adult games into their different categories Spiel des Jahres, Kinderspiel des Jahres and their most recent category Kennerspiel des Jahres. Firstly, they nominate their favourites. Winners are selected at the final ballot.