You can speculate until July 12 about which games will win the 2026 Spiel, Kennerspiel, and Kinderspiel des Jahres awards, but finalists and winners for other awards have been announced over the past six weeks, so let's summarize those:
▪️ In late May 2026, the committee behind the Diana Jones Award revealed its finalists for the 2026 Diana Jones Emerging Designer Program, and now it's revealed finalists for the 2026 Diana Jones Award for Excellence in Gaming, with the list being as eclectic as usual:
- Mischief Toy Store, located in St. Paul, Minnesota (background in a Jan. 2026 Beat post)
- Molly House, a game by Jo Kelly, Cole Wehrle, and Wehrlegig Games
- Price Johnson, COO of Cephalofair Games
- Rob Wieland, a game designer and journalist (obituary in Rascal)
- Trench Crusade, a game by Mike Franchina, James Sherriff, Tuomas Pirinen, and Factory Fortress Inc.
The winner will be revealed on July 29, the night before Gen Con 2026 opens.
▪️ The ENNIE Awards celebrate "excellence in tabletop roleplaying gaming" — a topic I don't normally cover in this space — but if you're curious to see what is catching the attention of the ENNIE judges in this gamespace, check out the nominees for the 2026 ENNIES. The winners will be revealed on July 31 during Gen Con 2026.
▪️ The winners of the 49th annual Origins Awards were revealed during the 2026 Origins Game Fair in mid-June, and here's a sampling from the thirteen categories featured:
- Co-op/solo game: The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship, by Matt Leacock and Z-Man Games
- Gateway game: Railroad Tiles, by Hjalmar Hach, Lorenzo Silva, and Horrible Guild
- Party game: Hot Streak, by Jon Perry and CMYK
- Strategy game – heavy: Speakeasy, by Vital Lacerda and Eagle-Gryphon Games
- Strategy game – light: Winter Rabbit, by Will Thompson and Absurdist Productions
▪️ Lucca Crea, the company behind the Lucca Comics & Games fair, and SAZ Italia have named the five finalists for their Board Game Designer of the Year award: Bruno Cathala, Johannes Goupy, Tomáš Holek, Reiner Knizia, and Paolo Mori. The link includes a bio of each designer (in Italian), as well as the games released in the past two years that were considered when determining eligibility.
▪️ In late May 2026, the nominees of the 2026 Jogo do Ano — Portugal's game of the year award — were announced:
- Ada's Dream, by Toni López and Alley Cat Games
- Ants, by Renato Ciervo, Andrea Robbiani, and Cranio Creations (my overview)
- Galactic Cruise, by T.K. King, Dennis Northcott, Koltin Thompson, and Kinson Key Games
- Luthier, by Dave Beck, Abe Burson, and Paverson Games
- Speakeasy, by Vital Lacerda and Eagle-Gryphon Games
▪️The Österreichischer Spielepreis 2026 — Austria's game of the year awards — were announced at the end of June 2026, with Take Time by Alexi Piovesan, Julien Prothière, and Libellud taking home the Spiel der Spiele — that is, "Game of Games", which is a magnificent way of labeling the winner, grander than simply calling it the "best".
The other 2026 Österreichischer winners and their categories are:
- Families: Morty Sorty Magic Shop, by Markus Slawitscheck and Schmidt Spiele
- Kids: Beast Selfie, by Emanuele Briano and HUCH!
- Friends: Hot Streak, by Jon Perry and CMYK
- Experts: Saltfjord, by Kristian Amundsen Østby, Eilif Svensson, and Aporta Games
- Cards: Duel for Cardia, by Faouzi Boughida, Mathieu Rivero, and Hans im Glück
- Trend: Boss Fighters QR, by Michael Palm, Lukas Zach, and Pegasus Spiele
Seems weird to have four categories that are subsets of humans, then...cards and trend. The Austrians have had those final two categories annually since 2020, so perhaps they wanted to give Covid-homebound players more suggestions, then just kept going.
▪️ Congrats to all the winners and nominees, but let me point out in passing that everyone named in this post is male, with the only non-males among these award recipients and nominees being some of the ENNIES nominees.
To loop back to the awards mentioned at top, while announcing the Spiel des Jahres nominees, jury chairperson Harald Scharpers "pointed out the vast gender disparity among designers of [the 440 games reviewed by the jury], with only 2.3% of them — ten games in total — being solo designs by women; 94% of the games were designed by male authors, with the remainder being mixed teams."
