Before I talk about James Wallis’ excellent board game retrospective Everybody Wins, out now from Aconyte Books, I have a confession to make: I enjoy a good board game now and then, but I’m really not what you’d call an aficionado. I’ve never played Catan, I have in fact only played three of the games featured here (Carcassonne, Ticket to Ride and Camel Up), and these days most of my involvement with any kind of games comes from reading IP fiction and enjoying the background rather than the games themselves. When Aconyte very kindly sent me a review copy of Everybody Wins I honestly thought I’d dip in and out of this very nicely-presented coffee table book, but right from the first page it had me hooked and wanting to keep reading, and what’s more it’s got me thinking about actually playing games again for the first time in…well, in ages.
Rather than a general overview of board games history, this makes the smart choice of following the path of the Spiel des Jahres, the hugely influential German award (which I’d previously heard of, but didn’t know anything about) that aims to reward and highlight the best board game each year. Split into five sections covering the winning games from 1979 to 2022, it charts the changing attitudes of the Spiel des Jahres jury over the years to what makes a great game (in their opinions), covering a little of the background and history of the award and what it was trying to achieve, but mostly concentrating on the games themselves. As someone who doesn’t know the board games industry well though, the context that Wallis adds in his observations on how the award’s choices are now seen in hindsight – and the changing face of games design over time – are just as interesting as his discussion of the games,
The main body of the book though is taken up with discussions of the 44 Spiel des Jahres winners, from Hare and Tortoise in 1979 to 2022’s Cascadia by way of famous names like Catan and Dixit and some less-familiar (to English-speaking audiences at least) games like Auf Achse and Um Reifenbreite. For each game Wallis describes a little of its theme and mechanics, giving a concise but engaging insight from the perspective of a genuine board games expert and enthusiast. Depending on the game he might point out particular elements that influenced future titles or that in hindsight now feel like anachronisms, delve into the history of its designer(s) and how it fitted in – or not – with the overall trend of the award at that time, or discuss overall industry perceptions of certain games or mechanics. You get a real sense of what each game is like to play, and a clear idea of whether it’s something to enthusiastically look out for or maybe one to approach with caution.
Much more than just a dry description of each year’s winning game, this is full of wit and warmth, and its many digressions and anecdotes are as enjoyable as the descriptions of the games themselves. Nicely laid out (although the occasional white-text-on-yellow-background callout boxes are a touch tricky to read) with a great balance of specific game information, broader context and industry-specific history, it feels like both an honest and unbiased analysis of a fascinating industry, and a real celebration of a form of entertainment that brings so much joy to so many people. There’s a risk with this sort of book of feeling repetitive and a bit formulaic, but that’s absolutely not the case here, as charting the course of these games over the years feels both entertaining and genuinely informative. For anyone with even the mildest interest in the subject, it’s surely impossible to read this and not want to play most of these games, even the old fashioned or plain weird-sounding ones.
Review copy provided by the publisher
Everybody Wins is out now in hardback and ebook formats from Aconyte Books. Check out the links below to order your copy:
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