The Best "Ion Award๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ" winners and nominees 2024

Looking for a good game that won or was nominated for the "Ion Award"? Then we have just the thing for you: A list with the best "Ion Award" winners and games that were on the nomination list.

What is the "Ion Award" game prize?

The "Ion Award" is an award for dice, card & board games. The award originates from ๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธUSA, was created in 2009 and is voted by a jury.

The Ion Award Game Design Competition is an annual board game design competition held at SaltCon, a board game convention in Salt Lake City, Utah. The Ion Award is for any game designer with an unpublished game.

Judges are invited from industry experts, professional game testers, publishers and game retailers.

Largest game award in the USA๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ.

The Ion Award is the largest board game design competition in the United States. It is held annually in Utah at the SaltCON board game convention. The contest started in 2009 for unpublished game designs, with the intent of bringing designers and publishers together to recognize excellence in game design. The first Ion Awards were supported by national publishers, including Eagle-Gryphon Games, Mayday Games, Rio Grande Games, and Out of the Box Publishing, and have continued to receive national and international support.

The competition has received game designs from around the world. Board game designs that have won the Ion Award or been selected as finalists have been published every year since the contest began.

How are the games judged?

Each year, local and international board game publishers are selected as judges for the contest, including long-time judges such as Eagle-Gryphon Games, Mayday Games, Gamelyn Games and others.

The contest has two rounds of judging. First, all participating designers submit rules, images, videos, and summaries of their unpublished game designs. These submissions are then reviewed by judges around the world, and finalists are selected. The 4 finalists in each category will be invited to participate in the final round of judging at the SaltCON convention, where they will present their game design in person to the final judges. After the final judging, the winners will be announced at the awards ceremony at the convention.

The Ion Awards initially had a single winner for Best Game each year, but since 2011 there has been both a Simple Games category and a Strategy Games category.

Finalists are announced about a month before the live event. Winners will be announced a few days after the finals.

Ion Award Categories

The Ion Award is presented each year in the following categories:

  • Ion Award Best Game
  • Ion Award Light Game
  • Ion Award Strategy Game

More info can be found on the official Ion Award homepage or the Wikipedia article of Ion Award.

Other game awards from around the world.

There are many more game award from around the world, you can find a list at the bottom of this page.

List of best Ion Award winners & nominees 2024:

The Ion Award is a competition for game developers who have not yet released a game. Of these games, only a few make it to the European market, so the list is very short:

This list was last updated on February 25, 2024. We compared 11 board games for this list and selected the top 7. There's also a print version for this list.
  1. Steam Up: A Feast of Dim Sum

    All details for the board game Steam Up: A Feast of Dim Sum and similar games

    Nominated for 1 award and won 1.

    More details for Steam Up: A Feast of Dim Sum
    • 2 - 5 Players
    • 40 - 60 Minutes
    • 8+ years old
    • Easy to learn
  2. Xenon Profiteer

    All details for the board game Xenon Profiteer and similar games

    Nominated for 1 award and won 1.

    More details for Xenon Profiteer
    • 2 - 4 Players
    • 30 Minutes
    • 10+ years old
    • Easy to learn

    Video reviews for Xenon Profiteer

    • YouTube Review for the game "Xenon Profiteer" by BoardGameGeek
      Video is in English
  3. Pizza Theory

    All details for the board game Pizza Theory and similar games

    Nominated for 2 awards and won 1.

    More details for Pizza Theory
    • 2 - 3 Players
    • 10 - 15 Minutes
    • 6+ years old
    • Easy to learn
  4. Hold Your Breath!

    All details for the board game Hold Your Breath! and similar games

    Nominated for 1 award and won 1.

    More details for Hold Your Breath!
    • 2 - 4 Players
    • 20 Minutes
    • 6+ years old
    • Immediately playable
  5. Karesansui

    All details for the board game Karesansui and similar games

    Nominated for 1 award and won 1.

    More details for Karesansui
    • 3 - 6 Players
    • 45 - 60 Minutes
    • 10+ years old
    • Easy to learn
  6. Oros

    All details for the board game Oros and similar games

    Nominated for 1 award and won 1.

    More details for Oros
    • 1 - 4 Players
    • 60 - 120 Minutes
    • 14+ years old
    • Medium difficulty
  7. Nika

    All details for the board game Nika and similar games

    Nominated for 2 awards and won 1.

    More details for Nika
    • 2 - 4 Players
    • 30 Minutes
    • 8+ years old
    • Easy to learn

Didn't find the game you were looking for?

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