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The Essen Feather (German : Essener Feder) is an award for German-style board games, given at the Deutscher Spiele Preis ceremony at the Spiel game fair in Essen, Germany. The award is given to games with well-written rules, as it was felt that too many good games were spoiled by incomprehensible rules. [1]
The trophy is a brass goose quill and inkwell on a chessboard.
A Eurogame, also called a German-style board game, German game, or Euro-style game, is a class of tabletop games that generally has indirect player interaction and abstract physical components. Eurogames are sometimes contrasted with American-style board games, which generally involve more luck, conflict, and drama. They are usually less abstract than chess or Go, but more abstract than wargames. Likewise, they generally require more thought and planning than party games such as Pictionary or Trivial Pursuit.
The Spiel des Jahres is an award for board and card games, created in 1978 with the purpose of rewarding family-friendly game design, and promoting excellent games in the German market. It is thought that the existence and popularity of the award was one of the major drivers of the quality of games coming out of Germany, particularly in the 1980s and 1990s. A Spiel des Jahres nomination can increase the typical sales of a game from 500 to 3,000 copies to around 10,000; and the winner can usually expect to sell to as large as 30 million copies.
Reiner Knizia is a prolific German-style board game designer.
Kremlin is a board game satire of power struggles within the pre-glasnost Soviet Union government of the 1980s. The game takes its name from the Kremlin in Moscow, the location associated with the central Soviet government offices. The original German-language edition was designed by Urs Hostettler and released in 1986 by the Swiss board game company Fata Morgana Spiele under the name Kreml. An English translation of the game with slightly modified rules was published by Avalon Hill in 1988. Kremlin won a 1988 Origins Award for Best Boardgame Covering the Period 1900-1946.
Alhambra is a 2003 tile-based German-style board game designed by Dirk Henn. It was originally published in Germany by Queen Games in a language-interdependent version; an English-specific version was released in North America by the now-defunct Überplay. The game is an Arabian-themed update, set during the construction of the Alhambra palace in 14th century Granada, of the 1998 stock trading board game Stimmt So!, which in turn was an update of the 1992 mafia influence board game Al Capone; the original version was subsequently released as Alhambra: The Card Game.
Wolfgang Kramer is a German board game designer.
Alan R. Moon is an author of board games, born in Southampton, England. He is generally considered to be one of the foremost designers of German-style board games. Many of his games can be seen as board game variations on the travelling salesman problem.
Ra is a board game for two to five players designed by Reiner Knizia and themed around Ra, the sun-god of Heliopolis in ancient Egyptian culture. It is one of three auction games designed by Knizia, the others being Medici and Modern Art.
Queen Games is a German publisher of tabletop games, based in Troisdorf and founded in 1992 by head Rajive Gupta, which specialises primarily in German-style, family-level games but has also published smaller numbers of both simpler, children's games and more complex, gamers' games.
Caylus is a strategy oriented, German-style board game designed by William Attia and independently published in 2005 by Ystari in France and England, and Rio Grande Games in North America. Caylus has a mix of building, producing, planning, and bargaining — without direct conflict or dice-rolling mechanics.
Entdecker is a German-style board game designed by Klaus Teuber and published in 1996 by Goldsieber in German. Although the game won 2nd prize in the Deutscher Spiele Preis, many gamers were disappointed with the game after the success of Teuber's previous game, The Settlers of Catan. An updated version, Die Neuen Entdecker, was published in 2001 by Kosmos; this version was published in English by Mayfair Games under the title Entdecker - Exploring New Horizons. This version of the game won the Essen Feather for that year.
Die Macher is a strategy board game published by Hans im Glück in 1986 that simulates a German general election.
To Court the King is a dice-based board game for 2–5 players designed by Tom Lehmann. It was published in German by Amigo Spiele as Um Krone und Kragen in 2006, and in English as To Court the King by Rio Grande Games. The basic mechanics of rolling and re-rolling dice have drawn comparisons to the game of Yahtzee.
The Game is a dice game designed by Reinhold Wittig. It was first published in Germany in 1979, without rules and under the German name Das Spiel.
Agricola is a Euro-style board game created by Uwe Rosenberg. It is a worker placement game with a focus on resource management. In Agricola, players are farmers that sow, plow the fields, collect wood, build stables, buy animals, expand their farms and feed their families. After 14 rounds players calculate their score based on the size and prosperity of the household.
Dead Man's Dice is a pirate-themed game, played with dice, employing luck, strategy, and the accumulation of points.
Camel Up is a board game for two to eight players. It was designed by Steffen Bogen and illustrated by Dennis Lohausen, and published in 2014 by Pegasus Spiele. Players place bets on a camel race in the desert; the player who wins the most money is the winner of the game. Camel Up won the Spiel des Jahres in 2014.
Arno Steinwender is an Austrian board game designer and teacher. In his free time he develops board games, for which he has won several awards.
This list of board game awards is an index to articles that describe notable awards given to creators of board games. It also gives articles related to chess and go competitions.