Kinderspiel Des Jahres Winner Announced!

One of the biggest awards offered in the boardgame industry are the Spiel Des Jahres, consisting of three, the Kennerspiel des Jahres focussing on expert games, the Spiel Des Jahres on accessible family-friendly games, and the Kinderspiel Des Jahres, which awards innovative children games. Nominations for each were announced not long ago. 

This year, three games were nominated for the Kinderspiel Des Jahres, which were Speedy Roll, Foto Fish, and Wir Sind Die Roboter, and today a winner has been announced –Speedy Roll is the children’s game of 2020.

Speedy Roll (or Hedgehog Roll as it has also been known) is a game by Urtis Sulinksas, with art by Irina Pechenkina, and published by Lifestyle Boardgames.

In Speedy Roll, you’ll be fending off the sly fox who wants to make a meal of you, whilst also collecting apples, leaves, and mushrooms. Collecting these items means you can progress along the path you lay and escape the fox! You'll roll your fuzzy hedgehog along the forest floor to collect the items, but you'll need to be quick!

It’s a family dexterity game, where the round Velcro hedgehog picks up the smaller Velcro components on the board, making it sound simple to explain to and play with the younger audience. It's recommended for ages 4+, and will take about 20 minutes to play, for between 1-4 players.

In the poll we ran when the nominations were announced, Speedy Roll received the same number of votes as Wir Sind De Roboter, placing it joint winner, which tells us that the games are of a high standard and a decision will have been tough to make. We’re excited to see more of this game moving forward, and a Kinderspeil win will certainly help! There’ve been some amazing children and family games, so if you're looking for even more family games do check out our top ten list of children’s games too.

We've not long now to wait for the Spiel Des Jahres and the Kennerspiel, so we'll keep you updated as news becomes available. 

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