Its time for the 2025 Deutscher Spiele Preis results! The community (yes, humans AND goblins who know a real game) has spoken, and here’s what crawls out of the scoreboard muck. The winners will still be seated on thrones at SPIEL Essen—22 October—but we’ve got the Top 10, and my claws are itching to share.
Top Contenders for Grown-Up Gamers (Family & Adult Games)
Here are the Top 10 games gamers nominated. These are the ones people talked about with excitement—and frustration when they didn’t get the die they wanted:
1-3 (alphabetical, they don’t tell who’s #1 yet):
- Bomb Busters (Pegasus Spiele, by Hisashi Hayashi)
- Endeavor: Deep Sea (Frosted Games / Board Game Circus, by Carl de Visser & Jarratt Gray)
- SETI: Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (CGE / HeidelBär Games, by Tomáš Holek)
Other notable show-offs clutching for goblin respect (Places 4–10):
4. Castle Combo (Kosmos by Grégory Grard and Mathieu Roussel)
5. Faraway (Kosmos by Johannes Goupy and Corentin Lebrat)
6. Civolution (Deep Print / Pegasus Spiele by Stefan Feld)
7. Blood on the Clocktower (Funtails by Steven Medway)
8. Slay the Spire: The Board Game (Nice Game by Gary Dworetsky, Anthony Giovannetti and Casey Yano)
9. Apiary (Feuerland by Connie Vogelmann)
10. Dune: Imperium Uprising (Dire Wolf Digital / Asmodee by Paul Dennen)
Kiddos’ Corner (Best Children’s Games)
Also in the race, because children deserve fun too:
- Cascadia Junior (AEG / Kosmos by Fertessa Allyse and Randy Flynn)
- Little Alchemists (CGE / HeidelBär Games by Matúš Kotry)
- The Sandcastles of Burgundy (Ravensburger by Susanne Feld and Stefan Feld)
What This Means, According to Goblins
- The DSP continues to lean sharp—these aren’t whisper-quiet filler games. Many in the Top 10 are crunchy, tactical, or demand planning, which means goblins who enjoy grinding decisions are smiling.
- Some surprises: games less flashy, but clearly loved, are ranking high. Humans vote with their hearts… and brains.
- The kiddie category has some adorable contenders. Cascadia Junior and The Sandcastles of Burgundy look like they might win by virtue of being both charming and well-made. Goblins approve of charm. Occasionally.
When the Crowns Will Be Doled Out
Final winners (1st place in each category) are being kept secret—like the last piece of troll treasure. The awards will be officially revealed at the SPIEL Essen press conference on 22 October 2025. If you’re at Essen, bring earplugs, because excitement will be loud.
Goblin Final Word
DSP 2025 isn’t a walk in the swamp—it’s battles of clever design, sharp tactics, and hearts won. If your game is on that list, well done. If not, there’s always next year. Keep forging, keep tweaking, and maybe next DSP you’ll taste the glory… or at least loot the applause.
Well, the humans have spoken — or whatever passes for speaking among that lot. The Deutscher Spiele Preis 2025 winners are in, and I, Jugbite the Grim, am here to glare at them properly:
1st Place: SETI: Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence — Oh yes, humans staring into space, hoping aliens will answer. Trust me, if they’re out there, they’ve seen you already and decided to avoid your smell. Clever game though — I’ll give it that.
2nd Place: Endeavor: Deep Sea — Diving for treasure, charting the ocean, trying not to get eaten by sharks. Not bad. Any game where players risk drowning is at least thematically honest.
3rd Place: Bomb Busters — Humans flinging explosives to solve problems. Now that’s a concept I can respect. Hisashi Hayashi clearly understands the goblin heart.
And the Best Children’s Game award went to Little Alchemists, a sweet little potion-mixing romp for bright-eyed goblinlings. Nice choice — big fun, few explosions. Might need adjusting.
Congrats to the winners — enjoy polishing trophies while goblins take notes for our own awards show. One where every game ends in glorious, mushroom-fueled chaos.