Galactic Cruise vies for the 2026 Deutscher Spiele Preis

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Galactic Cruise, Sanctuary and Boss Fighters QR are among the finalists for the Deutscher Spiele Preis, with the winner to be announced during Spiel Essen.

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Galactic Cruise is one of the three finalists for the Deutscher Spiele Preis 2026, one of Germany’s leading public-voted board game awards. The winner will be announced during the Spiel Essen trade fair at the end of October.

The space tourism-themed worker-placement game is competing for the award against Sanctuary, designed by Mathias Wigge, and Boss Fighters QR, an app-driven cooperative title that was nominated for this year’s Kennerspiel des Jahres.

A win would extend Galactic Cruise’s string of accolades, marking another milestone for North American publisher Kinson Key Games’ first major release. The game was designed by TK King, Dennis Northcott and Koltin Thompson and has already won The Dice Tower awards for Game of the Year, Best Strategy Game and Best Game by a New Designer.

At the Golden Geek Awards, organized by BoardGameGeek, Galactic Cruise won Heavy Game of the Year. It also finished as runner-up in the Best Art and Presentation and Best Thematic Game categories. The game’s Kickstarter campaign raised more than US$ 800,000 with the support of more than 8,000 backers.

Sanctuary could earn Mathias Wigge his second major title after the success of Ark Nova. The zoo-management game reached second place in the BoardGameGeek rankings and has surpassed 13 million plays on the Board Game Arena digital platform since its online launch in May 2023.

Boss Fighters QR represents another opportunity for Michael Palm and Lukas Zach, three years after Dorfromantik finished second at the Deutscher Spiele Preis and won the Spiel des Jahres. The title was also nominated for the Kennerspiel des Jahres alongside Moon Colony Bloodbath and Rebirth, which won the category.

This year’s edition is open to independent games released in German between May 1, 2025 and April 30, 2026. Residents of Germany, Austria and Switzerland took part in the vote, which received “many thousands” of votes, according to Merz Verlag, which has overseen the award since 1990.

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