Our predictions for the Winners of the Spiel des Jahres🇩🇪 2024 Award 2025

Players take on the roles of a pilot and a co-pilot in a cooperative game for two. The objective is to work together to land your airplane at various airports around the world. Successful landing requires silently coordinating dice placement in your cockpit to balance the aircraft, control speed, deploy flaps, and even brew coffee to enhance focus. Each airport presents unique challenges, so stay alert for turbulence—it could be a bumpy ride!

Trio is a card game where players search for triplets. The deck consists of 36 cards, numbered from 1 to 12 three times. Players sort their hands from low to high and take turns revealing cards, aiming to collect sets of three matching cards.

Players build landscapes by placing colored tiles to create habitats for their animals. To score the most points and win, they must cleverly integrate these habitats into their landscapes and attract as many animals as possible.

Players embark on twelve journeys through North America as 19th-century pioneers. Starting on the East Coast, they face challenges while aiming to complete ticket objectives and develop new skills to overcome unexpected events and rivals. As the campaign progresses, players unlock new rules and content, creating a uniquely tailored experience that evolves with their choices, resulting in a game that can be enjoyed for a lifetime.

Renowned mediums compete to decipher a secret object and prove their connection to the "spirit world." The first team to identify the secret object wins.

Players embark on a three-day journey through human history, traveling through time to experience significant moments from the past. Each day represents a round in which players choose historical events to spend hours on, gaining advantages like ticking off points on their itinerary and collecting time crystals to manipulate the space-time continuum in future turns. Points are also earned for visiting events in chronological order, and the player with the most points after three rounds wins.

Ahoy, Captain! Raise your flag, recruit a crew, and fill your coffers with shiny gold coins. The game is simple and can be explained faster than a cannon shot. On your turn, draw a tile from the bag; if you like it, keep it, and if not, flip it over. Place it on your board to build your crew. With nine characters and four boards featuring different tactics, it offers an engaging and fun experience.

Forest Shuffle is a strategic and environmentally themed card game where players vie to create the most ecologically rich and balanced forest habitat. By gathering valuable trees and attracting diverse species, players work towards building a vibrant ecosystem, all while keeping an eye on the changing seasons that signal the game's end.

The Guild of Merchant Explorers is a unique and engaging strategy game that blends exploration with city-building elements. Players begin with a single city on their personal map and must skillfully expand their territory by placing cubes based on terrain cards drawn from a shuffled deck. The game emphasizes strategic planning and adaptability, with players aiming to efficiently complete areas, connect cities, and maximize their score through various means.

In the realm of goblins, a grand gem hunt has begun to locate valuable treasures missing from a legendary crown. Small helpers must find the missing jewels among a vast collection of unique gems based on shape and size.

Let's head to the Forest of Keys to regain the King's memories! Players must find the beautiful memories sealed in the treasure chest, where real and false keys are hidden. Adventures await in this enchanting forest!

Twenty years after his journey around the world, Charles Darwin writes about the origin of species and seeks new information about animal life, especially from unexplored continents. Young, adventurous naturalists board the Beagle to assist him in completing his famous work. Players study animals, conduct surveys, publish findings, and develop theories, aiming to score more points than their competitors and demonstrate their significant contributions to Darwin's research.

Players guess facts and measurements, such as whether the Eiffel Tower weighs more than the Titanic. Questions can range from the length of a clarinet compared to a snake to the cost of a night at a hotel versus a kitchen appliance. The key to success is convincing others of your answers, even when you're unsure.

Players lay matching cards on the central stack, similar to Mau Mau or UNO. The round ends when a player has played their last card.

Players engage in a cooperative experience over three timed rounds. Instead of speaking, they must communicate through actions, such as giving or taking runes (colored stones) to redistribute and achieve their secret goals and the overall public ritual.

Lecker Lava features a three-dimensional game board where lava chips flow out of a volcano, ideally landing right in your mouth! Players roll dice to draw new lava chips from a bag and place them on the board while positioning their cardboard dragons with open mouths at designated openings. The goal is to catch the most valuable chips while avoiding the gray ones, which cost valuable point chips at the end of the game. The game ends when there aren't enough lava chips left in the bag for the current round.

Three adorable friends appear unexpectedly and enjoy it when you remember their names and call them at the right moment. Players must be the first to get rid of all their cards to win, similar to the adult version.

Players collect berries and honey to satisfy their hunger and gather straw to make their beds even cozier!

Create your own botanical garden in the late 19th century as an aristocrat. Hire a gardener and seek out the finest plants, while ensuring they align with the preferences of discerning visitors. Compete for action points through a unique selection mechanism, manage resources, and gather funds to enhance your garden and attract more visitors than your rivals.

Players control a world power in a cooperative game focused on climate change. They implement political measures and technologies to mitigate global warming and build resilient societies. If the global temperature rises too high or too many citizens face crises, everyone loses; however, by working together to reduce global emissions to zero, all players can triumph.

The history of brewing dates back to ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, with various cultures developing unique beers over centuries, particularly in Germany, known as the "beer country." In Beer Pioneers, set around 1850 during the early industrialization, 2 to 4 players act as brewmasters, transforming their small home brewery into a large brewery. Players perform actions each round by using workers or trucks to brew diverse beers, improve brewing processes with new innovations, and enhance worker efficiency, while action cards help earn victory points through beer deliveries and other activities. The game continues until a player scores 20 victory points, marking the final round, and the brewer with the most points wins.

Oh no! Harry Hamster has a hole in his sack, and all his food is scattered in the hay, where the other animals are eagerly waiting to snag their favorite treats. Players must throw cards to search for the animals and their favorite food in the haystack. Points are awarded for the animals, and once the needle is found, Harry can sew his sack back up.