The most prestigious international game awards for 2014 have been announced.
 
Steffen Bogen’s camel race game Camel Up has earned the top German game design award—the Spiel des Jahres or "Game of the Year" for publishers eggertspiele and Pegasus Spiele.  Pegasus Spiele was also honored with the Kennerspiel des Jahres, which honors more gamer-targeted titles, for its Istanbul.  The award for best children’s game, Kinderspiel des Jahres, went to Mattel Games’ Geister, Geister, Schatzsuchmeister! last month (see "2014 'Kinderspiel des Jahres' Winner").
 
Camel Up was chosen by the Spiel des Jahres jury over two other nominated games, Space Cowboy’s Splendor and Repos Production’s Concept (see "2014 'Spiel des Jahres' Nominations").  Camel Up is a quirky game in which players must bet on camel races where the camels often ride each other piggyback-style.  The jury chose the game because of its family-friendly party-game style, quick playing time, and ability to handle up to eight players.  Camel Up will be distributed in the US by Z-Man Games, which will release it later this year (see "'Camel Up'").
 
Istanbul pits Turkish merchants against each other in the famous bazaar, trying to earn money and collect rubies.  Players must attempt to beat their opponents to the most valuable merchants, while carefully deploying their limited supply of assistants as they travel through the bazaar.  Istanbul was chosen over two other nominees, PD-Verlag’s Concordia and eggertspiele’s Rokoko.  It is distributed in the US by AEG (see "'Pagoda' and 'Istanbul'").