Interview: How Spiel Des Jahres Winners Are Chosen with Martina Fuchs

The first thing I noticed as our video call began was the massive collection of games Martina has amassed in her years in the hobby. Twilight Imperium, every expansion of 7^th Continent and Root, it’s a wonderful wave of wargames and heavy euros. “I’m on a short break from playing possible Spiel games,” says Martina. “so we’ve just started our campaign of Frosthaven. I love talking about these games as due to Spiel Des Jahres, I rarely get the chance!” 

How do you become a Spiel Des Jahres Judge?

We spoke about how Martina became involved in Spiel Des Jahres. “Before I was in the jury, I spent my time playing the huge dungeon crawlers and massive wargames. I created a podcast called “Fux & Bär” with my friend Björn to talk about these games, which I still do alongside my main job in education and volunteer role as juror.”

Yes, this is a volunteer position. Juror members are not paid for their time, but thankfully are provided complimentary review copies of the games. “For German people, it’s very hard to work full-time in board games, so for me and many other jurors, this is something we do out of love for the hobby.

“I had never planned to be a member of the jury, especially when my game coverage was always focused on games that would never win the award. I was called by Harald [Schrapers, chairman of the Spiel Des Jahres jury] who asked if I would consider it. They had been following my work for a while and appreciated that I wasn’t only a good critic, but that I played games with a wide variety of different groups, including at school with students as well as with my wargaming friends.

“You’re given one year to see if this is something that works for you, as well as if the jury members feel that you work well with the team. It was in that year that I realised how much I really loved doing this. It’s a beautiful job that teaches you such much about games.

How does Spiel Des Jahres work?

“In any given year I will have anywhere between two hundred and three hundred games to play. I arrange four or five evenings a week to meet up with different groups to play a variety of games. We start around 6pm, take a break for food and play until late. I would say I have around forty regular people I meet with.” As someone who struggles to get a couple of weekly meet-ups to play games, I can only be wowed by Martina’s dedication.

Martina was kind enough to share through her process of deciding what makes a great Spiel Des Jahres contender. “When I’m looking at a game, it needs to be immediately accessible. From opening the box, it shouldn’t take you more than fifteen minutes to start playing. It’s also important that you don’t need to keep referring to the rulebook during play: if a game isn’t explained well, it’s going to be a struggle for people who have never played board games. When players actively request to play it again, I always favour those games when considering my nominations.

“We have to make sure we find players who are new to tabletop gaming every year. For my playtests of Dorfromantik, I had two copies of the game: one that we got to enjoy the full campaign and another that was permanently set-up to its first scenario, so I could see the game played by new players as much as possible.

“This does become a problem: as I’m introducing so many people to the hobby, once they start become involved themselves, I can’t play with them as often! I have to turn down so many friends who invite me to play games, because I’m too busy playing games!”

Who could win a Spiel Des Jahres?

Any game that releases in Germany between 1^st April and 31^st March of the following year can be considered for that year’s award. The jury will meet in May (to give those last few releases a fair chance) and discuss the nominations over a long weekend. “We each have a list of around ten games that we put forward, to create a list of usually 30-40 different games. Each game is given an equal chance of nomination, with any jurors who put it forward (even if it was only one) still provided the opportunity to say why they feel it’s important. We then take a vote and if at least half the jurors agree, it is kept in consideration.

“We have recalls and revotes, slowly shrinking down the list to those three nominations for each category. This discussion really feels like work, as we run from 9 until 5 (with a lunch break in-between), then meet again the next day from 9 until usually 4 (when we’ve come to a decision.) What makes it easier is that we all share that love of games; getting to discuss with fellow critics is an interesting and enjoyable experience. It’s still hard when the game you love doesn’t get enough votes to qualify, which happens every year for each of us at least once!”

Once the nominations have been announced, the jurors each heavily play these nine nominated titles, ready for the final vote that takes place on the day of the announcement.

“Because the award has gotten so big in popularity, we hold our own awards ceremony in Berlin. We invite all the developers and publishers for the nominated games to the event, which is now also shown online as a livestream.

“We meet privately beforehand to do a secret ballot. Unlike the nominations, this vote often takes five minutes and there’s no discussion beforehand. An independent person will check the votes and see if there is a majority winner. If there isn’t a clear winner, we will then have a short discussion on what we feel should win, before another secret vote until there is an overall winner. Members of the jury don’t know which game has won until they’re announced: we’re just as excited to find out who won alongside the designers!”

After the awards

Once the awards are announced, the cycle begins again. I asked Martina why it is she continues to do this year after year. 

“We wouldn’t be here without the great games in history. So many know titles like Catan, even people who wouldn’t consider themselves into gaming. When people say to me “oh, this game is so easy, why is it considered the best game?” We’re not trying to pick the ‘best game’ each year: We’re looking for the games that everyone can enjoy. “Everyone who is into board games will start and end with Spiel Des Jahres games: either when they first get into this hobby or when they’re finding time to share their hobby with loved ones. These are special games that show what made us love this hobby so much.” 

Looking for more? You can find reviews for some of the 2024 Spiel Des Jahres nominees right here, with Captain Flip, Ticket to Ride Legacy: Legends of the West, and Daybreak.