Fraser McHarg: Boardgames Australia 2009 Awards

The Boardgames Australia 2009 Awards were recently announced.  Here’s a little bit of background from the website.

Boardgames Australia is a non-profit organisation founded in 2007 to stimulate the growth and raise the profile of boardgaming in Australia.

Our aims are to:
• establish a set of awards that will recognise and reward excellence in local and international design, promote the hobby of boardgaming and guide Australian consumers to high-quality boardgames.
• promote the awards and associated recommendations as a valid, valuable and credible source for advice and recommendations on boardgames.

We also aim to
• increase sales of quality boardgames in Australia and increase the penetration of quality boardgames in retail outlets across Australia.
• encourage the development of the boardgame industry in Australia, from game design & development, through publishing and sales.
• promote boardgaming as a way to bring friends and families together to share each other’s company and produce stronger and more resilient families.

As can been seen from our aims, our focus is on games that are suitable for families but that still qualify as good games in the eyes of gamers.  Thus in the near future neither Space Hulk nor Le Havre are likely to pick up a Boardgames Australia award, but in the longer term we hope that games in their league will be contenders.

We have three awards, Best Australian Game, Best Children’s Game and Best International Game.

The submitted games are short listed and the short lists announced.  We guarantee that all short listed games will be played at least twice before voting commences.  Of course some games will be played much more than this.  During this period we actively try to play the games with different numbers of players and different groups of players as well.

Voting on the games then commences, each round the lowest scoring game is removed from the list and then the new round will begin.  During these voting rounds discussions are held with the judges commenting on games and comparing them against each other and the judging criteria.

Once the list has been reduced to three games a final round of voting is held to determine the winners.

The 2009 winners, with a short accompanying comment are:

Best Australian Game - Sorts for Kids

Sorts for Kids is the younger sibling of Sorts! but the new game is not only simplified for younger players but also even more fun with great zany questions, easy to use paddles to lock in your answer, and a new fun category of questions - the line up! We reckon that Sorts for Kids makes a perfect present for families with children in the 9-15 age range.

Best Children’s Game - Viva Topo!

Run mousey run, the cat is coming! In Viva Topo! you have five mice, and with the smell of cheese in their nostrils, your mice must dash for glory as far as they dare before bolting into a mouse house to dodge the cat that is chasing them! Each mouse house holds some cheese, but the largest lumps are in the furthest mouse houses and that nasty cat is more likely to catch the unfortunate mouse. This is a simple but very exciting game, suitable for ages 4 and up but offering some opportunity to make decisions about what risks to take. The beautiful pieces and artwork make this a game that young and old can enjoy playing.

Best International Game - Pandemic

Pandemic is part of a whole new genre of games where players co-operate to defeat a mutual threat: in this case a number of deadly diseases spreading across our planet! Up to four diseases will be spreading from city to city across the globe. You will have to take on the role of a scientist, dispatcher, medic or operations expert and use your special skills to contain disease outbreaks while racing to find a cure for each disease. The game ends with victory if you manage to find a cure for every disease, but can (and often does) end in disaster with a pandemic overwhelming the civilized world.

Full commentary including judge’s comments can be found by following the award links.

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