2013 Best Australian Game

Boardgames Australia congratulates the designers of the following games, which have been shortlisted for the Best Australian Game Award 2013.

Note that the Australian games are shortlisted for two years, so there is some overlap with last year’s list.

The winner of the Best Australian Game was Dungeon Raiders.

Dungeon Raiders

This is a fun card game of defeating the hazards of a dungeon and dividing the loot. Each player has a different character with slightly different powers, and must use their hand of cards to best effect. Each of the 25 rooms in he dungeon features a monster, trap or some loot, and players compete to get the best stuff, or to avoid being wounded by the traps and monsters. The most wounded adventurer is eliminated at the end of the game, and then the richest is declared the winner.

Despite the cute cartoonish artwork, this is a game of some tactics and cunning, and although 8 year olds can play, age 12 or 14 would be a better guide for when someone might expect to win!

Cuble

This is a nicely produced game with sturdy plastic tiles, that are laid out to form pleasing patterns. The aim is to play out tiles so as to score a cuble which happens when the three adjacent numbers form a sum (like 7, 4, 3 which is 3 + 4 = 7).

The rules and game play are easy, but keep everyone alert and engaged. There is scope for a little tactical play by seeing what numbers are still available. A fun way to learn some maths and enjoy family time together.

Rosetta

This is a game of tactics, pushing your luck, and perhaps some negotiation! The game uses hexagonal tiles, where the aim is to form pure rosettas, which are a ring of 6 tiles around a centre tile in your own colour, with no repeated number. Of course every other player is busy trying to spoil your rosetta!

To some extent you can work together to fill in rosettas for you and an opponent, but the risk is that they might find a tile that will help them while spoiling your plans. The rules are simple, but the game offers a variety of tactical choices.

Viewpoint

Viewpoint is a fun card game of tit for tat with a psychedelic theme of vision: spectacles, TV, blurry vision, and shadows all appear in this game! Each player is trying to get 100 points out on the table, but every card that they play also gives them special actions: moving cards back into their hand, drawing more cards, stealing from opponents and so on.

The game hinges on timing the play of your key cards to have the best effect, but a little bit of luck never hurts either!