The SdJ Jury has announced the winners of their awards for 2024. Here are the winners of all three awards for this year:

Spiel des Jahres
Sky Team
Designed by:  Luc Rémond
Published by:  Scorpion Masqué and KOSMOS

Kennerspiel
Daybreak
Designed by:  Matt Leacock and Matteo Menapace
Published by:  CMYK and Schmidt Spiele

Kinderspiel
Die magischen Schlüssel
Designed by:  Markus Slawitscheck and Arno Steinwender
Published by:  Happy Baobab and Game Factory

Sky Team becomes the first 2-player only game to win an SdJ.  Given the award’s usual focus on games the entire family can play together, it obviously impressed the Jury.  Rémond is a relatively new designer; Sky Team is easily his most notable design.

Next, the Kennerspiel (KdJ).  The big news with Daybreak (known in Germany as e-Mission) is that it finally gives Matt Leacock his first win in an SdJ category.  Prior to this, he had been nominated for the SdJ three times (in three consecutive years!), was nominated for a KdJ for Pandemic Legacy 1, won a special award for Pandemic Legacy 2, and then received KdJ nominations this year for both Daybreak and Ticket to Ride Legacy.  Gamers around the world are delighted to see Mr. Leacock finally walk away with a pöppel.  Daybreak is Menapace’s first published game–not a bad debut!

Die magischen Schlüssel is Markus Slawitscheck’s second SdJ winning game.  He was also the co-designer of last year’s KdJ winner, Challengers!.  Steinwender has designed many other children’s games in the past; probably his best known adult game is CloudAge, co-designed with Alexander Pfister.

Congratulations to all the winning designers and publishers!