The game of the year 2022 is Cascadia. This was announced by the Spiel des Jahres association after the award winner had been selected by the jury. The placement game by Randy Flynn, published by Flatout Games, Alderac and in this country Kosmos, was able to assert itself against strong competitors.
Three titles were nominated for the Game of the Year 2022 award: In addition to Cascadia by Randy Flynn (Flatout/Kosmos) Scout by Kei Kajino (Oink Games) and Top Ten by Aurélien Picolet (Cocktail Games) entered the race for the red pawn this year. Ultimately, Cascadia prevailed.
Cascadia wins the red pawn
It has long been clear: the current vintage is also overshadowed by Corona. Board games have been postponed due to the pandemic situation, prices have risen significantly and are expected to continue to rise given the world situation, overall, after a long period of abstinence, people had to learn to play face-to-face again.
And there was something else on the agenda: the Ukraine. "There are also people in Ukraine who are interested in board games," explains Game of the Year chairman Harald Schrapers. Now they were suffering from "Russia's criminal war of aggression," according to Schapers. The focus of the speech was “Magic Geek”, a Ukrainian Instagram influencer who uses the platform to write about board games. He left his hometown of Kharkiv and now lives in another city in the country. There he wants to set up a board game meeting place for other refugees. The Spiel des Jahres association provides games for this purpose. There are many messages behind this: Everyday help comes in an uncomplicated way, in ways that you might not expect in such a war situation. What's more: board games can - despite all the horrors experienced - bring back a part of social life to people. “Tolerance and peaceful coexistence,” sums up Schrapers, which is what board games stand for at the international level, among other things.
It must have been a neck-and-neck race this year - you can hear that from the impressions of the jury members on the nominated Game of the Year 2022 titles. If you look for the opinions of fans and critics, there are good reasons for and against winning the Game of the Year award for each of the three nominated titles. The world-renowned award is considered an important selling point in the toy industry. As a result, countless copies of the prize-winner in particular are sold over the counter.
With Cascadia, a tile-laying game won the award that was highly publicized early on as a potential winner for the 2022 game of the year award. It is about the nature of Northwest America, a paradise for bears, deer, salmon, buzzards and foxes. Players help the animals to feel at home in their homeland and increase their living space over the course of a game. The playing field grows tile by tile – comparatively simple rules determine how this happens. Players must place contiguous areas and score scoring points by laying out tier tokens.
The localized version is distributed in this country by the publisher Kosmos. There they had the idea of the previous one Kickstarterproject secured at an early stage. Flatout Games generated over $270.000 through Cascadia crowdfunding with a board game that only costs around $30 for backers. The response was correspondingly great: over 9.000 fans took part in the crowdfunding.
In addition to the three titles nominated for Game of the Year 2022, the jury put six other board games on the recommended list. And these games are also impressive, but are clearly different in terms of target groups: 7 Wonders: Architects by Antoine Bauza (Repos), Echoes: The Dancer by Dave Neale and Matthew Dunstan (Ravensburger), Magic Rabbit by Julie Dutois, Romaric Galonnier, Ludovic Simonet and Cécile Ziégler (Funbot), My Gold Mine by Michael Loth, Christof Schilling and Hans Joachim Höh (Kosmos), So Kleever by François Romain (Repos) and Trek 12: Himalaya by Bruno Cathala and Corentin Lebrat (Lumberjacks Studio).
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KOSMOS 682590 Cascadia - In the heart of nature, game of the year... * |
24,99 EUR |
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