The 2011 Spiel Des Jahres Nominees Are...

Matt Leacock's Forbbiden Island (Gamewright, 2010)

It is the Most Wonderful time of the year for board game designers and publishers. Today, the Spiel Des Jahres (SdJ) jury announced its nominees for the coveted German Game of the Year trophy.

...and the 2011 nominees are:
-Asra
-Qwirkle
-Forbidden Island

But wait, aren't there usually five nominees for the SdJ?

Yes, but this year the SdJ jury decided to split the nominees into three groups. The three already listed are for the regular SdJ trophy. There were three more nominated for "kinderspiel des jahres" (children's game of the year), as well as for "kennerspiel des jahres," which goes to the best complex game of the year.

You can find the full list of nominations at the SdJ website.

A list of 12 other "recommended" games was also announced by the jury. Apparently these are games that didn't make the cut, but might be worth your time and money anyways. Check out those recommended games here.

In Which I Hold My First Published Game

12 Games per box

Shrink-wrapped!

Solid European-Style game manufacturing

Love the artwork!

Drop Site and Premio Archimede Award

If you would like a copy, head over to www.bellwethergames.com where we will be selling them exclusively.

Game of the Year Nominees Announced May 23

What were the best board games of the year? You may have your own opinions about that, or you could rely on the opinions of the Spiel des Jahres jury. If you are still new on your quest for the perfect game, the Spiel des Jahres (SdJ) is the German Board Game of the Year Award, presented every year in June. On May 23, five lucky nominations for the prize will be announced.

Its kind of a big deal. The German award is considered the top in the world and SdJ winners have consistently become some of the most-famous and best-loved games on the market.

Read more about the prestigious award from wikipedia, or go straight to the source.

Above is a close-up of the actual SdJ trophy to the 2001 SdJ award-winning Carcassone (Hans Im Glueck). Note a second SdJ trophy in the background.

Drop Site in Switzerland

As part of the Premio Archimede game design contest, the prototypes of top 10 games were sent to the Musee Suisse du Jeu (Swiss Museum of Games in Vevey, Switzerland) as a temporary exhibit. Since Drop Site was in the top 10, it also made the trip.

A big thank you to Jonathan Franklin who visited the museum and took a picture of Drop Site in the exhibit. The photo appears below:



I think the set-up of the game in the exhibit display leaves a little bit to be desired (note the upside-down cards at the bottom) , but I am just glad its there!

-Dennis

Pre-Orders for Drop Site Now Possible!

Now, and for a limited time, you can now pre-order the award-winning Drop Site card game. All pre-orders (up to the first 50 orders) will receive 30% off the sale price.

When will I get my pre-order?: We can't ship your copy of Drop Site until we get them ourselves, but we plan to ship all the pre-orders by May 31 (before the official Drop Site release date of June 1).

Is there some way I can learn how to play before I buy it?: Yes! We will be putting up a video tutorial as soon as we get our shipment in. Follow us on Twitter to get the latest updates.

What payment method does Bellwether Games use?: Right now, all our orders are placed through Pay Pal, where you can use either your credit card or Pay Pal account account to make the order.

What does the game look like?: Here is a sneak peak of one of the cards. The artwork was completed by Paolo Vallerga at ScriBabs and looks incredible!