Well, this has been in the works for a while, but I just wanted to let you all know about the Dice Tower Gaming Awards (The "Towers" for short - unless someone comes up with a better name.)

I'm going to make a full announcement about the awards soon, but I'm looking for help designing a logo. I'll give you a hefty geekgold award if you are interested in helping us out!

PURPOSE:

The purpose of the awards is to
- Encourage new developments and innovations in the board game industry.
- Promote board and card games to a larger audience
- Award the best games in different categories released each year.
- Present a slate of games with wide appeal from a variety of genres.
- Point out games that are simply fun!

CATEGORIES:

The BEST GAME OF THE YEAR award goes to a game that is the "cream of the crop", the one game which a sense defines the year in gaming. This is a combined result of the games' physical presentation, strategic choices, and most of all - a sense of fun.

The BEST FAMILY / GATEWAY game is the one game that can best be used to introduce new folks into the gaming hobby. It is a game with a low barrier to entry, but emphasizes fun and easy strategies. It is not necessarily the most strategic, but emphasizes a game that is fun for the entire family. Game components are of a high quality, and the game should appeal to a wide range of ages.

One of the goals of these awards is to recognize the "gem in the rough", a game that may not get the press others do. The SMALL PUBLISHER award recognizes the best game from any publisher with five or fewer published games.

To promote a constant influx of new ideas into the industry, the NEW DESIGNER award is presented to the best designer with their first or second published game.

The BEST EXPANSION award is given to the add-on to a game that increases variety, fun, and more strategic options. This is one expansion that owners of the original game should rush to buy.

The MOST INNOVATIVE award goes to the tabletop game that has a fresh, interesting mechanic driving the game. It is a game that will likely have future effects in the industry.

BEST ARTWORK will go to the artist and game which have best brought the theme to life - via the box and components.

BEST REPRINT will go the company who has reprinted an older game with the best updated rules and or components.

A committee will be nominating and voting on the awards. This committee is composed of the Dice Tower staff and other podcasters.

The nominees for the 2007 awards will be announced this June. Feel free to lobby for your favorites!

If you have any questions regarding these awards, or can help (by designing the logo or helping with web page design), please let me know. Post questions here, and I'll answer them as quickly as I can.

what are the start and cut off dates for the games release. i would hate to send emails for games that are not elegible.

Anything that was released in 2007 proper.

We will consider games released late December 2006.

the first few i can think of are for:

game of the year: race for the galaxy

family game of the year: zooloretto

best art: grave diggers

reprint: heroscape marvel (i would consider this a reprint of heroscape but im not sure if it qualifies)

This may be a dumb question, or at least shows that I am a rookie at this, but how can one find out when games were published?

Thanks.

If yu check out the BGG game entry it has the date the game was published right after the Game's name. i.e. Zooloretto (2007).

Best Art: Thebes, Notre Dame

Is this replacing the Podcaster Awards from last year?

Yes. In the sense that the Podcaster Awards have disbanded, and we are starting the Dice Tower Awards this year. Had the Podcaster Awards continued, I wouldn't have started it up.

The juries are very close to identical, though.

if you have your collection in bgg. open it and sort year min 2007 max 2007 it will show you your games released in 2007 only.

Great job on the categories! These break it down in a more interesting way than many other awards. Small Pub? New Designer? I *love* it!

If I could suggest one more category... an award that recognizes enduring popularity for a game. The game would have to be 5 years old or more and can only be awarded once every 5 years for the same title. I just think it would be appropriate for the hobby to acknowledge gaming favorites that keep coming to the table.

This is something we discussed, like having a "Hall of Fame", etc., but decided to simply start with these eight awards, and add others in the future.

Hey, that's why we have Gra Roku!

http://www.boardgamenews.com/index.php/boardgamenews/comment...

Just curious, does Steve Weeks get a vote now that you two patched up over Christmas.

I know Tom dislikes it, but Notre Dame would be my pick for GOY, with Race for the Galaxy a VERY close second.

Family/Gateway: Gypsy King, Zooloretto, and Gumball Rally would all be good choices.

Small Publisher: Gypsy King or Cutthroat Caverns

New Designer: Nobody in particular comes to mind. Hmmmm...

Best Expansion: TTR: Switzerland, memoir Air Pack, or Runebound: Sands of Al-Kalim

Innovative: Not much I have played in this category, so I'll go with Rattlesnake, even though it's just magnets.

Artwork: Thebes

Reprint: Thebes (not sure if it counts, it's a reprint, but has it's own ID on BGG...) or ummmm...I don't see any new reprints that I bought last year...

There were many, many podcasters invited, but several did not join - Steve Weeks being amongst that number.

About Notre Dame: While I don't like it, and will certainly lobby against it, I certainly can be outvoted. But I sure hope it doesn't make it!

Yes, Tom is not a big 'Rat Patrol' fan.

I found out how to do this in the Advanced Game Search. I'll keep bumbling around the site and learn a bit. Thanks for the tip.

Will you be soliciting suggestions?

I think Small Box Game's John Clowdus would be a good nominee.

"The Towers" is blah. How about "The Diceys"?

My take on the awards (I know, it's not my opinion that counts here, but just for the fun of doing it):

BEST GAME OF THE YEAR: Agricola
BEST FAMILY / GATEWAY: Zooloretto
NEW DESIGNER: Vlaada Chvátil
MOST INNOVATIVE: Galaxy Trucker
BEST ARTWORK: Thebes

That suggestion is a bit dicey.

The "Towers" sounds fine.

Tom, I hope you and the other committee members will pledge only to nominate games that you've played and then only to vote for categories where you've played each nominee. This was a major credibility issue in the podcaster awards last year.

Game of the Year: Jamaica

Family/Gateway: Jamaica/Zooloretto

Small Publisher: It's Alive - Reiver Games/Yehuda Berlinger

Best Expansion: Ticket to Ride Switzerland

Innovative: Pandemic - The infection mechanic was genius

Artwork: Jamaica

You may see a pattern in my votes but Jamaica is excellent and looks wonderful. I had to get it after hearing Tom and Sam enthuse about it and it doesn't disappoint at all. The components are lovely, the board and cards a joy to behold. An absolutely beautiful game to look at and play.

It's Alive is an excellent little game by a small publisher and is made to an extremely high standard as well which was a pleasant surprise. My copy was numbered out of 300 so it was a pretty small print run.

TtR Switzerland really notches up the difficulty as the board seems very cramped with multiple routes which makes the game a challenge for two players. I hope DoW release more seperate maps like the Nordic one. (hint, hint and crosses fingers)

Pandemic is excellent. A co-op game that has selectable difficulty levels and plays in 40 mins! Amazing and very tense as the game builds to a climax.