News

2011: Again a successful year for game designers of the SAZ / update-8

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 10:02:00 +0100

In the year 2011 again many game designers who are members of the Game Designer Association (SAZ) have been successful. They got an impressive number of awards, nominations and jury recomandations. In detail, 48 members with 46 games received 81 awards and nominations in 2011. We congratulate all of them!

You get the complete overview here: 2011 - Success list of SAZ members (PDF download 30 KB)

as of January 05, 2012

International Gamers Award 2011: Winners and Nominees

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 00:00:00 +0200

The jury of the IGA has chosen 7 Wonders and A Few Acres of Snow for the International Gamers Award 2011. The following games have been nominated for this award.

Kategorie "General Strategy - Multi-Player":
7 Wonders by Antoine Bauza – published by Repos

Airlines Europe by Alan R. Moon - published by Abacusspiele
Asara by Wolfgang Kramer - published by Ravensburger
Die Burgen von Burgund by Stefan Feld - published by Alea/Ravensburger
Dominant Species by Chad Jensen - published by GMT Games
Inca Empire by Alan Ernstein - published by White Goblin Games
K2 by Adam Kaluza published by Rebel
London by Martin Wallace - published by Treefrog
Navegador by Mac Gerdts - published by PD-Verlag
Troyes by Sébastien Dujardin, Xavier Georges, Alain Orban - published by Pearl Games
Vinhos by Vital Lacerda - published by What's Your Game?

Kategorie "General Strategy - 2-Player":
A Few Acres of Snow by Martin Wallace - published by Treefrog

Battles of Westeros by Robert A. Kouba - published by Fantasy Flight Games
Earth Reborn by Christophe Boelinger, - published by Ludically
Famiglia by Friedemann Friese - published by 2F-Spiele
What's My Word? by Joli Quenten Kansil - published by Gryphon Games

We congratulate all game designers - particularly our members A. Bauza, S. Feld,
F. Friese, W. Kramer, V. Lacerda and A.R. Moon.

Link to the IGA website

Deutscher Spielepreis (German Games Award) 2011: The Winners

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 12:11:00 +0200

Winner of the Deutschen SpielePreises (German Games Award) 2011 is the game
7 WONDERS by Antoine Bauza (Repos Production)

On the next places of the top ten list follow :

2. DIE BURGEN VON BURGUND by Stefan Feld (alea/Ravensburger)

3. TROYES by Sébastien Dujardin, Xavier Georges and Alain Orban (Pearl Games)

4. NAVEGADOR by Walther M. Gerdts (PD-Verlag)

5. ASARA by Wolfgang Kramer and Michael Kiesling (Ravensburger)

6. MONDO by Michael Schacht (Pegasus Spiele)

7. PANTHEON by Michael Tummelhofer (Hans im Glück Verlag)

8. LANCASTER by Matthias Cramer (Queen Games)

9. LUNA by Stefan Feld (Hall Games)

10. STRASBOURG by Stefan Feld (Pegasus Spiele)

Winner of the Deutschen KinderspielePreises (German Children's Games Award) 2011 is

MONSTER-FALLE by Inka and Markus Brand (Kosmos)

Winner of the Goldene Feder (Golden Feather) 2011 for the game with the exemplary instructions is

EXPEDITION SUMATRA by Britta Stöckmann and Jens Jahnke (Igramoon Spieleverlag)

The SAZ congratulates all game designers, particularly our members Inka and Markus Brand, Matthias Cramer, Stefan Feld, Jens Jahnke, Wolfgang Kramer, Michael Schacht, Britta Stöckmann and Michael Tummelhofer.

With the "Code on Matters of Intellectual Property Rights," the SAZ wants to achieve better fair play!

Thu, 16 Jun 2011 17:13:00 +0200

At its general meeting in Göttingen, the Game Designer Association (Spiele-Autoren-Zunft e.V.; SAZ) passed a resolution on the draft of a "Code on Matters of Intellectual Property Rights with Respect to Games." Recently, there have been a number of incidents that have caused serious concern and that justify the imperative necessity of better relations. This code is meant to lead to fair guidelines and to communication procedures between designers and publishers in case of problems regarding intellectual property rights. With this draft, the SAZ plans to approach the publishers and the groups representing their interests (in Germany: Fachgruppe Spiel), in order to reach an agreement as broad as possible with the publishers. For those problems that the parties involved cannot solve by mutual agreement, we strive to establish an international arbitration commission that will make recommendations in this regard.

You will find the text of the Code as PDF here.

New executive board at Game Designer Association (SAZ)

Tue, 07 Jun 2011 10:18:00 +0200

On June 3, 2011, the eve of the Game Designer Meeting in Göttingen, the Game Designer Association (SAZ) held it‘s general meeting. At the regular end of the term, a new executive board was elected: As new members join Harald Mücke, as 1. Chairman and Dr. Michael Feldkötter as 2. Chairman. Christian Beiersdorf was reelected as treasurer.

Harald Mücke (43) lives in Mönchengladbach and is game designer since 1999. His primary occupations are, consultant for the hotel business, operating the mail order site Spielmaterial.de and his company Mücke-Spiele who publishes games of his own, as well as games by other designers. His last game was „Die Weihnachtspinguine“, which he published himself.

Dr. Michael Feldkötter (39) lives in Mettmann and works as game designer and freelance geographer. He started beeing a game designer in 2005. His last game was „Krawall vorm Stall“, which was published by Ravensburger.

Christian Beiersdorf (61) lives in Freiburg and has been a games designer since 1990. He has been working with different game publishers for many years and now operates the service and licence agency Projekt Spiel. His last game was „Haubi‘s verrückte Backstube“, which was published as a promotional game for an Austrian bakery chain.

The main subject at the general meeting was a large publicity and media campaign by the name „Games have authors too“. Details of this campaign will follow shortly. Subject of an engaged debate was the draft for a code of ethics in copyright disputes, which is supposed to be discussed with game publishers.

For its dedicated advocacy for the interests of game designers, the SAZ was awarded the Inno-Spatz at the 30. Game Designer Meeting in Göttingen. This Award is given by Reinhold Wittig, the founder of the meeting in cooperation with the city of Göttingen.

JOGO DO ANO 2011: The Finalists

Mon, 06 Jun 2011 15:53:00 +0200

The jury of the ambitious Portuguese game award JOGO DO ANO has announced the finalists of this year:

- Dominant Species by Chad Jensen — GMT Games)
- Luna by Stefan Feld — Hall Games
- Navegador by Walther Gerdts — PD-Verlag
- Troyes by Sébastien Dujardin, Xavier Georges und Alain Orban — Pearl Games
- Vinhos by Vital Lacerda — What's Your Game (Hutter Trade)

We congratulate all game designers, particularly our members Stefan Feld und Vital Lacerda, and cross our fingers.

Jury Game of the Year: The nominated and recomandated games 2011

Mon, 23 May 2011 13:32:00 +0200

The Jury Spiel des Jahres has published the results of their first decisions this year. They nominated three games each for the following awards: Game of the Year, Children's Game of the Year and for the new Expert Award of the Year. Furthermore they published recommandation lists for family and children's games.

All details you find on the website of the Jury

the SAZ congratulates all game designers and is particularly proud that 20 of their members with 23 games are the lucky on these lists: Gunter Baars, Christine Basler, Lisbeth Boos, Alix-Kis Bougerra, Inka und Markus Brand, Matthas Cramer, Thomas Daum, Stefan Feld (3x), Hirsten Hiese, Michael Kiesling, Reiner Knizia, Wolfgang Kramer (2x), Violetta Leitner, Lauge Luchau, Andrea meyer, Michael Schacht, Jens-Peter-Schliemann, Hans-Peter Stoll, Bernhard Weber, Anja Wrede.

Origins Awards: The Nominees 2011

Thu, 14 Apr 2011 11:10:00 +0200

The Game Manufacturers Association in the USA has published its annual list of nominations for the Origins Awards. Traditionally, the list is dominated by role-playing games. Nevertheless, e.g. Markus and Inka Brand with their Ligretto Dice, Klaus Teuber with Settlers of America and Marco Ruskowski, Marcel Süßelbeck and Wolfgang Panning with Fresco are present on the list.

Link to the complete list on the Origins Awards website

Hippodice Game Designer Award: The decisions for 2011

Sun, 13 Mar 2011 18:43:00 +0100

As usual, the final discussions and decisions of the jury (seven R&D guys from publishers and Wieland Herold of the Jury Spiel des Jahres) have been exiting. The list of the awarded games and game designers is long and the list of recomandations full of wonders.

The three finalists:

Afrika 1830 by Alexander Pfister (A)
Hexa Maxima by Robert Schuppe (D)
Vasall by Volker Sänger (D)

Further participants of the final round have been:

Cumulus by David Kremer (D)

Der schlaue Müller by Bernhard Kläui (CH)

Die Säulen des Herakles by Jörg Domberger (A)

Old World New World by Aaron Smith (USA)

Zieh Leine by Frank Bebenroth (D)

Games on the Recomandation List are:

Wirtschaftswunder by Malz, Louis und Malz, Stefan (D)

Wunder Wirtschaft by Stefan Risthaus (D)

The Special Award for the best children's game goes to:

Bienchen Bande by Carsten Schauf (D)

The Special Award for the best full evening game goes to:

Ruhrschifffahrt by Thomas Spitzer (D)

Congratulations to all game designers! Further information about the games you get here (only in German).

Game Designer of the Year 2010

Sun, 06 Mar 2011 17:07:00 +0100

Five years ago, Larry Levy began to award his Designer of the Year on the no longer existing site Boardgame News. Now, he continues this tradition on the site The Optionated Gamers. For 2010 he elected Antoine Bauza, Bruno Cathala, Stefan Feld, Friedeman Friese, Corey Konieczka, Wolfgang Kramer, Jason Matthews & Christian Leonhard, Michael Rieneck and Martin Wallace for nominees. Finally, he has choosed Antoine Bauza, who become popular 2010 with 7 Wonders. We congratulate all game designers, particularly our members Stefan Feld, Friedeman Friese, Wolfgang Kramer and Michael Rieneck.