Spiel des Jahres Nominations for 2025: Bomb Busters, Flip 7, and Krakel Orakel | BoardGameGeek News

by W. Eric Martin

In a livestream on May 20, the Spiel des Jahres chairman Harald Schrapers and the coordinator of the Kinderspiel des Jahres Christoph Schlewinski announced the titles nominated and recommended by the Spiel des Jahres and Kinderspiel des Jahres juries for 2025.

Let’s start with the nominees for the big prize, the 2025 Spiel des Jahres:

• Bomb Busters, by Hisashi Hayashi and Cocktail Games (and from Pegasus Spiele in Germany)

• Flip 7, by Eric Olsen and The Op Games (and from KOSMOS in Germany)

• Krakel Orakel, by Die 7 Bazis and frechverlag (under its TOPP brand)

Aside from these nominations, the SdJ jury recommended the following six titles: Agent Avenue, Castle Combo, Cities, Foxy, Perfect Words, and The Animals of Baker Street.

A funny aside: I bought Krakel Orakel at SPIEL Essen 24 as the concept seemed incredibly fun, yet the cards were all in German, so I’ve played the game only once with a German couple in the area that my wife and I know — and they liked the game so much I gave it to them as a Christmas gift that they could play with family when traveling home, figuring I could get another copy later. Now I’ll finally have the chance to play again — this time with English-language cards — at BGG.Spring 2025!)

• Endeavor: Deep Sea, by Carl de Visser, Jarratt Gray, Burnt Island Games, and Grand Gamers Guild (and co-published in Germany by Board Game Circus and Frosted Games)

• Faraway, by Johannes Goupy, Corentin Lebrat, and Catch Up Games (and KOSMOS in Germany)

• Looot, by Charles Chevallier, Laurent Escoffier, and Gigamic (and Game Factory in Germany)

The SdJ jury recommended four other titles at the Kennerspiel level: The Gang, Kauri, Medical Mysteries: NYC Emergency Room, and Zenith.

Another aside: I’m surprised to see Zenith on the recommended list — not because the game isn’t good as I’ve greatly enjoyed it to date, albeit with all-but-one plays being on BGA, but because I didn’t think it was on the German market yet. This is the main game I want to play at BGG.Spring 2025, so hit me up if you’ll be there.

• Cascadia Junior, by Fertessa Allyse, Randy Flynn, and Flatout Games (and from KOSMOS in Germany)

• Le Clan des Souris, by Christophe Lauras and Débâcle Jeux (and as Die Mäusebande in Germany from Game Factory)

• Topp die Torte, by Wolfgang Warsch and Schmidt Spiele

The Kinderspiel des Jahres jury also recommended three other titles: HiLo: Dein Königreich, Isla a la Vista (as Käpt’n Kuck), and Syllabus.

Final aside: HiLo: Dein Königreich isn’t even in the BGG database, a shortfall I’ve noticed each year at this time with the KidJ jury names a title or two overlooked by BGG regulars, who don’t dip into children’s games as much as games for older players.

Schrapers and Schlewinski noted that they looked at 385 titles for the SdJ and KedJ awards, compared to 351 in 2024 and 285 in 2023, and only 2% of those titles were designed solely be women, whereas 96% of the games had one or male designers, and the remaining games had mixed-gender teams.

Of those 385 games, they said roughly one hundred of them were variants or evolutions of existing games, as with Endeavor: Deep Sea.

The winners for all three awards will be announced in Berlin, Germany on July 13, 2024. Congratulations to all the nominated designers and publishers, especially KOSMOS which managed to license a nominated title in all three categories!