All "Spiel des Jahres🇩🇪 2020" game award winners & nominees in comparison 2025

Zombie Kidz Evolution is a pioneering legacy-style board game designed specifically for children. Building upon the foundation of the 2013 game Zombie Kidz, this version introduces a dynamic and evolving gameplay experience. Set in a school under siege by zombies, young players must navigate through rooms and entryways to fend off the undead and prevent them from overrunning the school. The objective is to lock all four entryways of the school, a task complicated by the absence of the custodian. As players progress and improve their skills, they can undertake missions and earn trophies and stickers, similar to achievements in video games. The game also features envelopes that, when opened, add new elements to the game, including challenges, powers, and heroes, keeping the gameplay fresh and engaging.

The Crew: The Quest for Planet Nine is a cooperative trick-taking game that takes players on an adventurous space journey, filled with challenges and strategic gameplay.

Players simultaneously attempt to replicate an image using one of five different materials: building blocks, sticks and stones, picture cards, colored dice, or a rope. Afterward, each player guesses which of the 16 displayed images was copied. The game concludes after five rounds, with each player having used every material once. It is also language-independent.

Cartographers: A Roll Player Tale transports players to a realm where they take on the roles of mapmakers, tasked by Queen Gimnax to chart the northern territories for the Kingdom of Nalos. This game combines elements of strategy and creativity, challenging players to create the most efficient and aesthetically pleasing maps.

Draftosaurus is a charming and quick drafting game where players aim to build the most attractive dinosaur park. The game stands out for its use of dino meeples and unique placement restrictions, making it an engaging experience for all ages.

My City is a groundbreaking competitive legacy game where players develop their own city across multiple epochs. This game uniquely blends city-building with the evolving challenges and narratives of a legacy format.

Spicy is a vibrant bluffing card game that captures the fiery competition among three big cats who, tired of their constant battling for supremacy, decide to engage in a spicy hot eating contest. This setup serves as a backdrop for a game filled with deceit, strategy, and quick thinking, designed for 2-6 players. The game's core mechanic revolves around players announcing their card plays without revealing them, allowing for a high degree of bluffing as cards are played face down.

The Fox in the Forest is a captivating two-player trick-taking card game that brings a unique twist to a classic genre with its enchanting fairy tale theme and strategic gameplay.

The King's Dilemma presents a captivating blend of narrative storytelling and strategy, set in the fictional Kingdom of Ankist. As players, you step into the roles of leaders of various noble houses, each with your own agendas and influence, making critical decisions that shape the fate of the kingdom.

Nova Luna is an abstract tile-laying strategy game that focuses on careful planning and decision-making. Players are tasked with fulfilling objectives by placing tiles strategically, creating a unique and engaging gameplay experience.

Embark on a mystical journey into the enchanting world of Res Arcana, where mages harness the powers of Life, Death, Elan, Calm, and Gold to shape their destiny. Prepare your place of power and engage in a strategic contest to achieve victory.

Villains have taken over our beautiful kingdom in Slide Quest, causing total chaos! Players must quickly work together to guide a brave rolling knight through this turbulent adventure filled with twists and traps.

Players select a snail to train and care for, aiming to win the title of the world's slowest champion. This enjoyable board game features impressive 3D elements and wooden snail figures, suitable for children aged 4 and up. It uses a paradoxical logic that allows even the youngest players to achieve great results, promoting creative thinking and the popular tactic of slowing down to speed up.

Players create animals by combining cards to help them escape in cooperative mode or to win the race of the year in competitive mode. The game features specific mechanics where players match three animal tails on the left with three heads on the right, including a llama, panda, turtle, elephant, or lynx. The objective is to find the best combination of these cards to complete the most animals with matching heads and tails.

Little Town is a charming and strategic board game where players take on the roles of architects with the goal of developing their own little town over four rounds. Through careful placement of workers on the game board, players gather essential resources, construct buildings, and earn victory points. The game challenges players to make the most out of their workers each round, strategically planning to gather resources, and cleverly positioning themselves in relation to buildings for optimal gain.

Under the dense canopy of trees, a hedgehog rushes back to its cozy home, but a fox is on the prowl for its next meal. Players roll the cuddly hedgehog across the forest floor to collect apples, leaves, and mushrooms to help advance on the path. The game offers both a competitive mode for head-to-head play and a cooperative mode to team up against the clever fox, with advanced rules for adult players seeking a challenge.

Not good at quiz questions? No problem. In this game, you receive all the answers before you start and just need to determine which of the eleven color cards in your hand correctly answers one of Colourbrain's clever questions.

Kitchen Rush immerses players in the bustling atmosphere of a newly inherited restaurant aiming for success. This innovative, real-time, cooperative board game captures the essence of kitchen management through a unique worker placement mechanism that uses hourglasses as workers.

Do you enjoy photography? Grab your camera and dive into the mesmerizing underwater world with your friends to capture stunning pictures! The photos you collect lead to accomplishments and fish that grow into awards.

Players assume the role of young apprentices aspiring to become great wizards. To achieve their goal, they must successfully complete at least 10 quests through teamwork. Quests involve matching magical items to their rightful owners by pairing the corresponding cards.

When the sun rises over the jungle in Puzzle-Memo, its light illuminates the animals that live there. A game board displays the silhouettes of various animals in different sizes, and players take turns flipping a tile to see if it fits into the bottom row. If they complete an animal, they move their pawn along a victory point track, and the player whose pawn travels the farthest when the jungle is fully illuminated wins.

Underwater Cities is a strategy board game where players become the world's brightest minds, tasked with creating the most livable underwater habitats. The game is notable for its card placement mechanism and offers a richly strategic experience that scales in duration with the number of players.

Players work together as a team to develop a sense of time and speed. By understanding these concepts, they will soon know exactly where Robbi will stop after rolling for about four seconds.

The roll of the dice determines how many of your chips you must trade for the next tier. However, beware: this game is not about accumulating the greatest wealth, but about finding ultimate luck. The first player to claim the four-leaf clover by skillfully trading everything wins.

Paladins of the West Kingdom is a compelling strategy board game that transports players to the tumultuous era of West Francia around 900 AD. The game beautifully blends historical themes with deep strategic gameplay.