Even though we love tracking all the annual board game awards, the results aren’t always that well publicized and we sometimes miss the announcements.  But in the interest of “better late than never”, here are how two of these awards played out in 2023.

The Dice Tower Awards are one of the more prestigious ones and has been around for over 15 years.  The winner for 2023 is Heat: Pedal to the Metal, designed by Asger Granerud and Daniel Pedersen and published by Days of Wonder.  When we summarized the award results for this year, we mentioned that there really hasn’t been any consensus in the results, but Heat has as much of a claim for most honored game of the year as any other, since it was also selected by the Golden Geek and Meeples Choice awards.

There were nine other finalists for the Dice Tower.  Here they are, in alphabetical order, together with their designers:

• Blood on the Clocktower  (Steven Medway)
• Endless Winter: Paleoamericans  (Stan Kordonskiy)
• Flamecraft  (Manny Vega)
• Foundations of Rome  (Emerson Matsuuchi)
• Planet Unknown  (Ryan Lambert, Adam Rehberg)
• Ready Set Bet  (John D. Clair)
• Return to Dark Tower  (Rob Daviau, Justin Jacobson, Tim Burrell-Saward, Isaac Childres, Noah Cohen, Brian Neff)
• Wayfarers of the South Tigris  (Shem Phillips, SJ Macdonald)
• Wonderland’s War  (Tim Eisner, Ben Eisner, Ian Moss)

Finally, here are the winners for each of the Dice Tower categories, together with their designers:

• Strategy – Endless Winter: Paleoamericans  (Stan Kordonskiy)
• Welcoming – Flamecraft  (Manny Vega)
• Party – Ready Set Bet  (John D. Clair)
• 2-Player – Splendor Duel  (Bruno Cathala, Marc Andre)
• Cooperative – Return to Dark Tower  (Daviau, Jacobson, Burrell-Saward, Childres, Cohen, Neff)
• Theming – My Father’s Work  (T. C. Petty)
• Solo – Return to Dark Tower  (Daviau, Jacobson, Burrell-Saward, Childres, Cohen, Neff)
• Innovative – Turing Machine  (Yoann Levet, Fabien Gridel)
• Expansion – Dune: Imperium – Rise of Ix  (Paul Dennen)
• Artwork – Flamecraft  (Artist:  Sandara Tang)
• Production Value – Foundations of Rome  (Artists:  Stephen Gibson, Damien Mammoliti, David Arberas, Valerio Buonfantino)
• Reprint – Cat in the Box: Deluxe Edition  (Muneyuki Yokouchi)
• Small Publisher – Flamecraft  (Manny Vega)
• New Designer – Akropolis  (Jules Messaud)

Next is the Spiel der Spiele, Austria’s national Game of the Year awards.  The winner is Cafe del Gatto, designed by Lena Burkhardt and Julia Wagner and published by Schmidt Spiele.  Here are the category winners, together with their designers:

• Game for Experts:  Merchants Cove  (Jonny Pac, Carl Van Ostrand, Drake Villareal)
• Game for Friends:  Black Stories: The Game  (Inka & Marcus Brand, Folko Streese)
• Game for Families:  80 Days  (Emanuele Briano)
• Game for Children:  Beethupferl  (Bernhard Weber)
• Card Game:  Fancy Feathers  (Friedemann Friese)
• Trendy Game:  Atiwa  (Uwe Rosenberg)

Congratulations to all the winners!