Origins 2008 Semi-Finalists Announced

The semi-finalists for the 34th Origins Awards have been announced at the GAMA Trade Show in Las Vegas. From all the entries obtained through open submission, “juries of subject matter experts in each award category” – to use the press release’s terminology – narrowed the list down to a maximum of ten entries per category. The categories of concern to BGN readers:

Board game or expansion

• AmuseAmaze, by Ethan Goffman (HL Games)
• Battue: Storm of the Horse Lords, by Jim Long (Red Juggernaut)
• Chang Cheng, by Walter Obert (Tenkigames / Z-Man Games)
• HeroCard Orc Wars, by Nico Carroll (TableStar Games)
• Kingsburg, by Andrea Chiarvesio and Luca Iennaco (ElfinWerks)
• Last Night on Earth, by Jason Hill (Flying Frog Productions)
• Pillars of the Earth, by Michael Rieneck and Stefan Stadler (Mayfair)
• Qwirkle, by Susan McKinley Ross (Mindware)
• StarCraft: The Board Game, by Corey Konieczka and Christian Petersen (Fantasy Flight)
• THUGS!, by Nik Mikros and T. W. Cooney (Tny Mantis Entertainment)

Traditional card game or expansion

• Bankruptcy, by Geoff Habiger and Coy Kaissee (Tangent Games)
• Before the Wind, by Torsten Lansbogt (Mayfair)
• Cutthroat Caverns, by Curt Cove (Smirk and Dagger Games)
• Escalation, by Reiner Knizia (Z-Man Games)
• Infernal Contraption, by Matt Wilson, Jason Soles, Kevin Clark, Erik Breidenstein (Privateer Press)
• Lifeboat, by Jeff Siadek (Gorilla Games)
• Minions, by Rick Smith (Cloud Kingdom Games)
• Walk the Plank, by Brian Hess and Evan Sass (Green Ronin)
• You Don’t Have More Cows, by Dane Fuller (Fuller Flippers)
• Zombie Fluxx, by Andy Looney (Looney Labs)

Game retailers attending the Trade Show will narrow the list down to five each, then attendees of the Origins Game Fair in June will select the winners, which will be revealed on June 28, at 8 p.m.

---

Comments:

You must register with BGN in order to comment. Registration is free, but if you appreciate the news, previews, reviews and other material posted on Boardgame News, please consider becoming a member to keep the info flowing to your screen!

I guess the Origin Awards are still a joke.  Why don’t we see games like Pandemic, 1960, Galaxy Trucker on this list?  Their publishers don’t play the Origins game.  This list is only about what publishers want to promote and then it breaks down to a “who can rally the vote” contest during the Origins convention. Posted by Rob Cannon on Apr 23, 2008 at 07:11 AM | #

It least the list of games is much, much better than last year. Posted by Kevin Rutherford on Apr 23, 2008 at 08:04 AM | #

"Why don’t we see games like Pandemic, 1960, Galaxy Trucker on this list?  Their publishers don’t play the Origins game.” Except that Pandemic and 1960 are both Z-Man, who has other games on the list. So obviously he must “play the Origins game” to some extent. Posted by Dave Chalker on Apr 23, 2008 at 08:23 AM | #

Maybe it’s a tactic to get some of Z-Man’s lesser known titles some publicity?  It’s still perplexing to think about why some our hobby’s best games don’t appear on this list. Posted by Rob Cannon on Apr 23, 2008 at 09:34 AM | #

Note: Pandemic was published in 2008 hence not eligible for the 2007 awards. As for 1960, I think that I ran out before being able to submit the required 7 copies of the game to be tested. Finally, there are only so many games I can submit before I compete with myself and possibly split the votes on my games - and Tenki really wanted Chang Cheng submitted so I agreed to it. Zev Shlasinger, President Z-Man Games, Inc. http://www.zmangames.com Posted by Zev Shlasinger on Apr 24, 2008 at 12:10 PM | #

I hope Zev sets aside the required number of copies of Agricola for next year.  I’m sure he’s gonna run out of it once it hits the stores. Posted by Kevin Rutherford on Apr 24, 2008 at 12:23 PM | #

< Back Home