Kingdomino is the winner of the 2017 Spiel des Jahres

Bruno Cathala’s Kingdomino has been named as the winner of this year’s lauded Spiel des Jahres award.

The acclaimed tile-laying game beat fellow nominees Race to El Dorado, by prolific designer and three-time Spiel des Jahres nominee Reiner Knizia, and Magic Maze, the debut game by Kasper Lapp, to scoop the prestigious Game of the Year award, joining past winners such as Catan, Ticket to Ride, Carcassonne and last year’s Codenames.

The achievement marks the first Spiel des Jahres win for Five Tribes, Mr. Jack and Yamatai designer Cathala, whose 7 Wonders Duel was Recommended for last year’s Kennerspiel des Jahres (Expert Game of the Year).

Escape-the-room trilogy Exit: The Game picked up this year’s Kennerspiel des Jahres prize, the second win for designers Inka and Markus Brand following the success of 2012’s Village.

Exit: The Game saw off competition from Shem Phillips’ Viking-themed Raiders of the North Sea and Jacob Fryxelius’ Red Planet simulation Terraforming Mars, and brought to an end the consecutive Kennerspiel wins of Andreas Pelikan and Alexander Pfister in 2015 and 2016 for Broom Service and Isle of Skye.

Penguin-flicking title Ice Cool was previously named as this year’s Kinderspiel des Jahres – Children’s Game of the Year.

The other hopefuls for the family-friendly accolade were swashbuckling adventure Captain Silver and fantasy-themed memory challenge The Mysterious Forest, based on the graphic novel of the same name.

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— Spiel des Jahres (@SpieldesJahres) 17 July 2017