Enlarge image
The playing field of »Magic Mountain«: A children's game with a ball track
Photo: Game of the Year
The prestigious and sales-boosting »Children's Game of the Year« prize has been awarded: This year it goes to »Magic Mountain«, an invention of the author duo Jens-Peter Schliemann and Bernhard Weber.
»Magic Mountain«, published by Amigo, is a game for children from the age of five.
There is a magical race between sorcerer's apprentices and witches.
The magician Balduin has called his students to him, and they set out on the arduous journey.
Will-o'-the-wisp balls (marbles) guide the children down the mountain into the valley (the game board is slightly sloping).
The marble is placed on top of the mountain marble run, after which all sorcerers' apprentices that it touches can be moved.
However, if the marble hits witches, they move forward.
The game is mostly played together, everyone against the witches.
If the sorcerers' apprentices finish before the witches, all players win.
If the witches are in the valley first, the game is lost together.
However, there is also a competitive variant.
A 20-year-old idea implemented
»Magic Mountain« is a game that children can quickly master without adult players and then play on their own in the children's room.
The award jury praised: "From the quick structure to the detailed rules, everything in this fascinating cooperative game was well thought out, so that children want to be enchanted by the 'Magic Mountain' again and again."
Authors Schliemann and Weber explained that the original idea for the game came to them almost 20 years ago.
They succeeded in implementing it shortly before the corona pandemic.
After all, the game could be tested extensively by children before kindergartens and after-school care centers closed in the wake of the pandemic.
The jury said the lockdowns had made it significantly more difficult to develop and test children's games.
About 70 new children's games were published in Germany last year, three of which the jury nominated for “Children's Game of the Year”.
In addition to »Magic Mountain«, there were »Also clever« and »With Quacks & Co. to Quedlinburg«, both conceived by Wolfgang Warsch.
Warsch thus managed the feat of raking in a double nomination with two children's game versions of his bestsellers »Pretty Clever« and »The Quacksalbers of Quedlinburg«.
That's what "Also clever" is about
"Pretty clever", "Twice as clever" and "Clever to the power of three" already exist as celebrated roll'n'write games for adults.
»Also clever« is now a children's game that prepares the mechanism of rolling the dice (»Roll«) and crossing off (»Write«) symbols on a block for a young audience.
This is done with a colorful kids birthday theme.
So the players roll their dice, cross out symbols (pieces of cake, sweets and so on), occasionally collect bonuses and experience a new kind of game.
Watching children do this is also exciting for adults.
Incidentally, the small box and the low price shouldn't hide the fact that »Also clever« is the most demanding of the nominated games.
The jury recommends it only from the age of six.
That's what »With Quacks & Co. to Quedlinburg« is about
Quedlinburg is still blossoming into a gaming metropolis.
After the "Kennerspiel des Jahres 2018" called "Die Quacksalber von Quedlinburg", the probably numerous young players will end up in the city in the Harz mountains this year.
Unlike four years ago, however, they do not brew the best potions, but try to get their stubborn mounts up to speed.
Incidentally, the donkey is called Quacks, hence the title of the game, although "Quack" is of course also the English term for quack doctor.
Similar to the big game, the children draw tiles from their own bag.
As the game progresses, better and better tiles are added, which drive the animals faster towards Quedlinburg.
The game works great, but occasionally leads to frustration in the little ones when they are simply unlucky a few times when drawing and are left behind by the others at least at times.