RANKED! 15 years of award-winning Board Game Titles

hi I'm Adam Porter and in this video we're going to be looking at the last 15 years of spielers yarz winners and Kinder Spiel as yarz winners and Kenna Spiel as yarz winners and the special Awards as well uh all of the awards and this is the most prestigious award in the board game industry but what we're looking at is ranking these games on the basis of title alone you might want to go back and watch the primer video that I've also released which uh is where I talk in some depth about what I think constitutes a good board game title and hopefully has lots of useful tips there if you're trying to come up with a title for your game so what we're going to try and do today is put that into action and have a look at a bunch of games which have definitely been successful right they've proven themselves by winning this most prestigious award um but what do we think of their titles or more specifically what do I think of their titles cuz you're probably going to disagree which is absolutely fine please tell me in the comments and if you like this video and you like what I do please subscribe to the channel Channel and share my videos widely okay so we're going to start off with the Spiel deara winners before moving on to the Kinder Spiel and then the kenes Spiel so let's start with SPI Darez 2023 winner was dwarf romantic I mean we're going title alone right and I know this is based on a known property this one is based on a a computer game or video game of some sort I believe so I mean it's got brand recognition right it's a strange though isn't it I wonder why that game was so successful if it had this title was it translated in other countries probably not I guess if it's called DF romantic all over the world as a board game it presumably was as an app as well it's a strange title I I'm not it's sort of intriguing I suppose it's got two words nice and short there's no alliteration in there or anything uh the word romantic is quite is quite uh intriguing particularly with that Big K at the end um but I'm not so keen on the word dwarf seed Okay C tier for dwarf romantic so I mean obviously that hasn't dented its success but I'll be saying that about each of my guess Cascadia is the next one what does Cascadia even mean do you know this is one where the title has actually I think it's part of the reason why I've never played the game I I'm sure that I would love Cascadia the more I hear about it the more I think I'd really like it it's a strange word is it a nonsense word it it can't be a nonsense word let's look it up what does what does does Cascadia mean it's a land of Falling Waters Cascadia names what it does why does it flow in a thousand different streams off a thousand Blue Hills White Water streaming down the green flanks of the Pacific slope in a thousand different ways okay that's fair enough isn't it that's a an actual Geographic term that I'm just too stupid to know it's one of those words which is a little bit UNAM familiar but unfamiliar in quite a good way like it sounds quite exciting in a way I don't know it's made me want to play the game a little bit more now I've actually bothered to look up what that is I'm only what's that two years too late so uh Cascadia yeah we'll we'll say that's a b tier okay B tier can't go any higher than that because frankly the name was putting me off a little bit even though that's my own fault micro macro Crime City I thought this was a bit odd when I first saw it but maybe in a good way like I remember my reaction to it the I mean it it's so unusual the whole thing the the cover art the black and white the sort of line drawings this this weird Word Mac micro macro one problem I have with micro macro is I always call it macro micro or sometimes I call it micro macro I get it muddled up the two the the two ways around and um I guess that doesn't really matter because if I Google it Google is going to correct me on that I think they're going to understand what I mean by macro micro it's a problem when I'm editing videos and I'm putting in titles on the videos and I I call it macro micro and then I look at it afterwards and think oh I've made an error there but that's on me really um maybe that doesn't matter it's got a nice bit of alliteration micro macro crime city is that alliteration we got two C's but they don't sound the same is that how alliteration works but it's nice mm CC catch for words it's set up a nice little convention where they can have additional titles in the same range because it's got that subtitle in there I think it's pretty good actually unusual eye-catching yeah I'm going to say it's an AER from micro macro next up then pictures what do we think of that as a title I mean my your initial my initial response is that's awful right that my initial response is that's a nothing title it's not a very exciting word there's nothing wrong with a single word title right there's nothing wrong with that at all but youve got to pick the right word you don't want to pick a word that's a bit Bland a bit boring there's no play on word in there is there there's nothing I'm missing I don't think I don't think there's any second meaning to pictures or any part of it it can work right these single word if you think about the TV series friends for example right that's that's a pretty boring word but how iconic has that name become and particularly the The Branding of that name you see that friend's logo anywhere and you instantly you you're you're brought back into that world so it can work but pictures it's a bit dull it's a bit dull it's not doing anything for me I'm going to put this down as a detier for pictures feel like I'm being quite harsh maybe there's a good one coming up just one is next on the list um just one is a party game very simple party game and it's a really clever title because it it relates to all sorts of different aspects of the game so you know if you're if you're playing just one you've just got one word right that you've got to portray uh to to the guesser right the guesser has just got to guess one word and they've got one opportunity to to make a guess they can they can make one single guess and when people write down their Clues if there are duplicates in there then they don't count they're wiped out so you're only allowed each clue once in the game so it's a clever title on all sorts of levels and it and it it suits a party game it's it's short quick Snappy easy to remember iconic yeah I think this might be our first s s for just one congratulations repost games Azul is it a madeup title it's not it's actually it is a a a foreign word where is it from but it just sounds a bit exotic uh and you know with a a slightly abstract game I I sto short of calling this an abstract strategy game because there's a a fair amount of of luck and it's multiplayer and all those sorts of things anyway doesn't matter but abstract games often have these single word titles that the word doesn't necessarily mean anything to the majority of people but it's just got to sound a bit exotic and ideally a bit ancient and a zul does really pull that off yeah it it's good it's good I like the Zed in there I feel think if you think about like the GF series of games the way they use unusual letters letters which don't feature in every word just to make things sound a little bit more exotic there's lots of y's and G's and uh and and and in awkward places you might get x's in in some of the the gigamic range and the gamic range always starts with q's don't they so these difficult sort of letters that just make the word a little bit more unusual aul pulls that off really well I think it's s TI this is great yeah s TI for aul next on the list then is King Domino King Domino Kingdom know how are you supposed to pronounce it King Domino is I know it's that's how people say it but the pun there is on Kingdom isn't it Kingdom Ino and on Domino it's quite clever I think they stretch it a little bit once they get into the other games in the series like Queen Domino but on the basis of this title alone King Domino I think it's good everybody wants to be a king right it's a single word it's got that nice o on the end right we like games with o Ludo quicko Quinto all that stuff I talk about that quite a lot in the primer my own game pcoo single word iconic evocative yeah good okay King Domino yes that works quite well for me I'm calling that one an AER code names okay code names this is a party game single word it is evocative right it makes me feel like I'm a a spy or something like that using a code name but it feels slightly generic it feels like it's the sort of name that might have existed before it feels like a a name that you might have for a public domain party game or for an app or something like that nonetheless it certainly caught the attention of the audience this was massively successful this one of all the spielers yarz winners that we've talked about I think codeen names is one of the real uh you know gang gang busters really this game so I'm going to say code names is I'm reluctantly giving it an 8 here I'd like to give it lower but it's working isn't it it is working cult Express quite like it I think it's quite memorable two words it's clear what it's talking about it's it's got that it invokes the idea of trains and travel and uh cult what does that say to me is that a gun a cult is it is it a a horse but certainly it gives me a sort of wild west sort of feel nice catchy two words title I think I I think this one's pretty good I'm going to go a here for cult Express camel up this one was interesting wasn't it because the cover suggested it might be camel cup it used that c it positioned that c in such a place that it sort of completes the word camel but it also looks like it completes the word cup and that's definitely deliberate right the way that it's laid out on the box it's been very well established now it is camel up and certainly in the second edition that ambiguity went away I wonder whether that ambiguity didn't quite work for the publisher in the way that they hoped um it's certainly got a lot of discussion you certainly see anytime anyone's talking about camel up on social media there's immediately a whole string of comments about oh it's camel up we call it camel cup you know and so on people chat about it and that's great get any conversation about the game starts to cement it in people's minds it might be a little bit confusing if people are are searching for the game if they're referring to the game and they're getting the title wrong maybe they're getting the title wrong in advertising brochures cataloges uh when they're talking about it on um on podcasts and YouTube channels maybe that doesn't help the brand identity I don't know the reason why they've adopted a clearer naming system for the for the second edition it was fun the whole camel up camel cup thing camel up as a title I think is does it make any sense I don't know it sort of sort of does it's one of that in in my primer video I talk about you know how we might use a name to describe what we do in the game what do you do in the game what's the goal of the game and the goal of the game here is to camel up right the the intention of the game is to stack up camels and get them moving so I think it sort of describes what we're doing in the game and that's a good um a good title B tier for Camel up camel cup camel up next up then is Hanabi Hanabi is another one of those exotic sounding words that probably the vast majority of the audience don't know what it means I don't know what it means what does Hanabi mean oh it's fireworks just means fireworks well there we are again it's me being stupid because there are fireworks on the front of the box it's pretty clear that Hanabi refers to the fireworks and of course that has very little to do with the game because it is a purely abstract card game but nonetheless they've opted for an exotic sounding word I can't really fault it I don't love it but is that because I don't love the box cover and I'm not even all that fond of the game B tier for Hanabi okay this one just lies right this is I mean first even if it didn't lie even if we were building a kingdom in the game which we're not okay even if we were then it's a really boring title it almost sounds like a a tool box or a toy box right a like a Lego kit or something um where we can construct something it doesn't sound like a game and we're not building a kingdom frankly we're laying out things we're sort of claiming territory yes is it a kingdom I don't know maybe I'm being harsh it doesn't feel like a kingdom to me I don't like this title very much I'm going to say this is a d tier Kingdom Builder not happy with Kingdom Builder very much Quirk this was a a concern for me when it was decided that my game was going to be called quizzle right because I thought well that's pretty close to Quirk isn't it but I mean that wasn't the intent quizzle is a quick puzzle people didn't necessarily interpret it like that they thought that I think if you hear the word quizzle on a puzzle you assume Quiz puzzle and as it's not a Quiz puzzle it's a quick puzzle what is a quirk don't know it's nothing is it it's just a madeup word I quite like the use of a q when we're dealing with cubes although we're not dealing with cubes in quira we were dealing with squares nonetheless abstract games with letters like q and Zed seem to go over well Quirk has become quite iconic there's been a whole range of games including Quirk cubes as's a followup it's a pretty good title it's an a tier I think from me for Quirk Dixit another game which uses that uh unusual letters the big X in the middle the x is even sort of bigger than all the other letters in um in the title on the box cover what does Dixit mean what does it mean Latin phrase dogmatic statement don't know what the Dixit bit refers to no I can't work it out there's obviously some deep meaning there but it just comes across like a nonsense word doesn't it really these nonsense words can really work aren't they particularly when the game has no particular narrative as Dixit doesn't Dixit is a story sort of a storytelling game it's a creative game at least but there's no set theme it's all sorts of different worlds uh included in this game so I think dixit's it's hard to separate from knowing how iconic it's become I'll call it an a tier for Dixit unsure on that one really I love the game so much it's hard to separate that from the title Dominion doesn't really capture what you're doing in the game I like the word dominion right Dominion is quite a powerful Snappy memorable single word there ought to be a game out there called the I'm just not sure this is the one right cuz Dominion is a pretty abstract game again really you know it's got the artwork and it's got the nomin I've got no problem with the theming of dominion it's fine and I don't really have an issue with the the the the title either it just doesn't quite I think the the word dominion suggests more power and authority and control and interaction perhaps than you get in the game maybe it's another one where the game lies a little bit but it doesn't matter because even if it sort of brings you into playing the game under false pretenses the game's so good it kind of gets away with it so I'm going to call this one a beat Tier for Dominion unlock game Adventures okay so unlock was one of the special award winners Okay so we've done 15 years of spi desara winners this is a special award winner I can't remember what the special award was for doesn't matter unlock what do we think of the title unlock it's brilliant isn't it as an evocative title for an escape room game unlock perfect describes exactly what you're going to be doing in the G in the game it's it's iconic it's short Snappy memorable um we've got other escape room games that are going to come up on this list I think unlock is probably the best title for an escape room game can't think of anything better well obviously I can't I've not designed one if I could think of something better then I would be a millionaire and I'm not so unlock yeah brilliant s tier unlock very happy with that title pandemic Legacy season two right I've unpicked this one quite a lot in the primer video so if you want to know my thoughts on that go back and watch that one I think it's a bit messy it's got too many TI too too too many bits and pieces in it it doesn't work without the history the legacy of the pandemic series behind it right you got to have understood that world before you're going to get into this that Legacy is massive I've never noticed that before the legacy is the main part it's almost like pandemic is the subtitle right the game title if you just look at the Box appears to be Legacy with pandemic as a sort of little sir title and then season two is a smaller subtitle there that's interesting because Legacy has of course gone on to be utilized in all sorts of games entirely unrelated to this system am I interested in playing a game that's called Legacy that happens to be part of the pandemic series I think it's a little confusing because it's got too much going on so I'm calling it an a tier because I like each individual part but when all thrown together I think it's limiting its audience slightly here's another one that won a special award this is World Without End what was the special award 2010 spielers Yara special prize for game of the year plus is this does this predate the kenes Spiel award yes it's the year before the Ken Spiel so essentially this is a kenes Spiel winner before the kenes Spiel existed because it's for the spiels Plus Award World Without End so this is a game that's named after a novel isn't it um and so that's great I mean it's got it it ties in with the IP immediately obviously it's recognizable so now we've got to analyze the actual the the the words itself and it's unusual as a board game title because most board game titles are either non nonsensical or very very literal okay you don't get too many poetic board game titles and maybe that's something that we're missing maybe we ought to be doing more of those poetic titles I don't know what the game's about I really don't but it's intriguing what is the the the novel trying to put across it's about a world that never ends so for me it's a really interesting experiment I like it I wish more games would do it but I don't know whether it's a commercial uh commercially sort of va valid move so I'm GNA say it's a b tier okay World Without End Space Alert yeah that's pretty exciting isn't it I mean action-packed titles right your title needs to reflect the feel of your game right the tone of your game Space of Earth is really exciting full of peril right um I think that's a good title maybe you could look at it and think it's slightly cheesy I don't think that matters we're not dealing in you know sort of high art here don't get me wrong I think board games are art right but we're not dealing in high art right we're not hanging this up in the Tate okay Space Alert says you're going to have a fun actionpack time and that's what I want from a game like this I don't want siderial Confluence I want Space Alert okay something exciting so yeah good I like it I'm going to call it an a tier for Space Alert and then finally this is another of the special Awards what special award was this probably party game wasn't it a special award for party games back in 2009 gift trap oh no gift trap the hilarious gift exchange challenge so the name is gift trap but it's got all this other massive writing on the box weird gift trap is that a play on words gift trap don't know it doesn't it's not immediately jumping out at me there must be something there that must be some sort of play on words gift trap does it sound like something does it rhyme with something gift trap no it's not not not really working for me I guess we're I don't know what we're doing I don't know the game right but I'm guessing that we're giving other people gifts but some of those gifts are going to be negative they don't want them you're trying to catch people out in some way that sounds like a good interactive party it's quite a memorable name quite sort of iconic I wish it meant something a little bit more and had a little bit more obvious word play in it a double meaning in there or something like that I'm going to call it B tier quite like it gift trap for a party game and that's the end of our spielers YZ and special Awards so now we're going to move on to the children's games and so we'll start out with the 2023 winner which is mysterium kids Captain echo's treasure so they're presumably planning to do a whole range of mysterium kids if this is successful if they've given it a subtitle like that Captain ekko's treasure they could release more episodes along I quite like Captain ekko's treasure it's quite intriguing isn't it as a family game or a children's board game I think I'd go and watch a film called Captain echo's treasure so uh or read a book called Captain echo's treasure so why not play a game I like the name mysterium it's a lovely word like mystery and the IEM on the end just makes it a bit unusual and gy and iconic it it takes a normal word and just tweaks it a little bit but without being stupid about it right i't just misspelled the word I like it I like the um kids frankly I quite like the the kids subtitle I prefer it to Junior I think it's less patronizing than Junior Scrabble Junior Monopoly Junior it's less patronizing than my first okay my first stone age which I think we're probably going to come on to so probably giving something away there so uh yeah it's working for me mysterium kids uh Captain echo's treasure perhaps it's a bit like pandemic Legacy there's a little bit too much going on so I'm going to give it an a tier rather than an S although I do like it very much and I I don't know but what I suspect I might maybe I'm going to like more of these kids titles than I do the adult ones I'm immediately going to prove myself wrong here oh no I don't mind this one Magic Mountain Magic Mountain I like alliteration right Magic Mountain two M's in there this feels I don't know it does maybe it feels a little naive like it it it almost goes a bit it becomes a bit preschool I mean what age is it for five plus so it is pretty much preschool actually it's probably right for that age group okay because there's no subtlety to it is there Magic Mountain I mean it's pretty on the nose right there's no subtlety it's a bit naive but that's fine for the age group alliteration nice naive title for a a um a preschool sort of audience fantastic Magic Mountain I think it's an a tier dragino I think it's rubbish the game's great the game is great it's a lovely game and I like that whole King Domino range we've already talked about King Domino but I do think they stretch it a little bit once they get into Queen Domino and then dragino which doesn't even work like it would work if it was dronimo but it's not it's dragino because dronimo wouldn't mean anything mind you neither is dragino they may as well have gone for it drono that would have been better I think but actually they've abandoned all of this haven't they with the latest King Domino releases they went with King Domino Origins which they could have called prehist Domino or something like that and then for the most recent one Moon River nothing to do with uh King Domino at all is it and they haven't even I I don't think there's even a sort of reference to King Domino on the box maybe there is maybe I'm mistaken again we're off topic I don't like the title dragino even though I really really like the game for young kids this one is another sort of almost preschool level game so we're going to call it D tier okay it's pretty terrible I think hard for kids to pronounce as well okay Hedgehog roll there we go straightforward fun what do we do in the game Hedgehog roll roll hedgehogs okay it's clear what we're going to be doing what the goal of the game is what the theme of the game is it's catchy easy to remember easy to say lovely really really like it I'm going to say hedgehog roll can I bring myself to call it an S tier I can't cuz there's nothing that clever about it is there I'll call it an a tier really good can't fault it Hedgehog roll Valley of the Vikings yeah that's great isn't it where does this game take place in the Valley of the Vikings why do I why am I asking you that it's because in my Prime video I talk about different ways that you can kind of come up with game titles and one of them would be to ask yourself who is this game about or where does this game happen when does it take place well where does this game happen in the valley who is it about it's about the Vikings nice alliteration Valley of the Vikings it sounds EX exciting yeah I think this is great this is s tier for a kids's game I could yeah really exciting in fact I'd like that in a in an adults game i' I'd like to play a a strategic Euro called Valley of the Vikings I'd rather that than Nal or I don't know how to pronounce those those games there is a game called something like that isn't there Valley of the Vikings much easier dragon's breath yeah dragon's breath I mean you got to remember some of these titles are transl ation so maybe they work better in the original German funl shats that's a nice word I don't know what funkle means but shats is treasure what does funkle mean in German twinkle glittery I might be getting this completely wrong funkle shats twinkly treasure that's a nice title and it's a lovely word I don't know I'm calling this one B tier it's okay it's all right B tier we haven't done many C's have we need to watch out for some C's I School say it quickly sounds like high school I like that I like the double meaning and Ice cool it just feels modern I mean the graphic design on it was great as well and I'm of course I'm a little bit I work with brain I've worked with brain games on three games so you could I might be a little bit biased about brain games right I like brain games but I school is a great game and Ice school is a great title because it's got the that double that extra layer to it where you say it and it means something different and it gives you the setting of the game but it's also a really exciting funky modern title love it ice cool s tier what a great title my first stone age ah I don't know I don't mind the title Stone Age when does this game happen in the Stone Age my first I find it a bit patronizing yeah my little side I don't know it's I'd ra to I don't really like Stone Age Junior as I said I'd rather they found something a bit cleverer like the mysterium Myster not necessarily kids Stone AG kids I'd quite like that stone age kids actually works quite well I like the title The the kids of kazon like the kids of the Stone Age would work really well here or just Stone Age with a a little subtitle that makes it clear that it's about it's about children why does it have to why can't it just be Stone Age and then a nice little title about the characters and what they're doing in the game not Stone Age style is the goal which was the the name of the expansion that was terrible so maybe they've played it safe a bit too safe here I think this is D tier I think it's really boring Spinderella yeah that's really nice isn't it again I I but I'm not biased because I've have no reason to love Zach verlag as much as I do it's not that they've ever published any of my games I meet with them regularly they're lovely people and I adore their games okay Zach verlag is one of my favorite Publishers probably my favorite publisher and Spinderella I don't think I've played Spinderella I've seen it it looks great off topic totally off topic Spinderella is a fantastic play on words isn't it sounds like Cinderella but it's got spin in there it's got spidal all over it very clear what we're going to be doing clever memorable fun to say evocative yeah love it absolutely love it a tier no s tier s tier for Spinderella love it ghost fighting treasure Hunters oh now we are cooking on gas full steam ahead ghost fighting treasure Hunters is a great title okay who's who's this game about it's about treasure Hunters what are they doing they're ghost fighting great perfect absolutely love it fun to say not maybe it it's not easy to remember like but you look it up you write in the in into Google game about hunting treasure and ghosts it's going to come up right you're not going to struggle to find it really fun and actually the the German title was uh even better g g shatsu Meister G gist shatsu Meister uh shat shat zuk Meister uh my pronunciation is not great so I'm assuming that means ghost ghost treasure master I don't know what the suck is don't know my wife's German but she gets very unhappy if I um ask her to translate things she I think she's got bored of it over the years love it great game as well EST Tia in both German and in English Enchanted Tower the enchanted Tower is is fun right it's naive in a similar way to Magic Mountain and it lacks the uh alliteration but I actually think Enchanted is a bit more um bit more interesting a word than Magic Magic's a bit plain isn't it it's a bit overdone it's a bit obvious Enchanted is a more fun name get a thesaurus out Magic Mountain okay the enchanted Tower does it a little bit better um I really like it evocative fits with the artwork A here schna Hobie Hobie is the name of the ghost I've tried to work out already what snapped means I think it means grab or catch so we're trying to catch h I don't know what Hobie sort of reference is it's just a fun name I think so we're trying to catch this ghost snapped Hobie catch Hobie I I think there's not enough board games that have an actual name in the title right and I'm not talking in the primer video I talk about Lorenzo IL magnifico and how I don't want to talk about some boring historical dude I don't want to play Louis the 14th right but we could do with him I like Professor evil and the Citadel of time right let's have some more character titles and and ideally those characters could become iconic and run over a range of games so we can follow them like we follow characters in a movie or a novel or a TV series so maybe Hobie could be a character like that maybe if the timing had been right and it had been properly implemented huie would have been the next Mario or sonic I'm calling it a beat here D de Dr what does that mean it means something like the worm is in there is there a second meaning there better be a second meaning because otherwise that's a pretty weird title isn't it or that the worm is in I I don't speak German you might have guessed you might have noticed that I've got GCSE German a long time ago and uh I tried to speak to my in-laws in German and it's this level right very frustrating for them I don't love it I but I don't understand it so maybe it would be unfair for me to put it in the detail here cuz I don't understand it and I need some C's so I'm putting in the SE tier never said this system was fair okay Diego draan I've got this game I really like it very very simple flicking little marbles it's got a name in it right like Hobie okay Diego Diego and Hobie could be our Mario and Sonic right hasn't worked out that way has it it's good it's I like it's got a good reference it's got a reference to teeth I'm a dentist love it for that reason I'm going off topic Diego draan I think it's got that nice alliteration it's it's it's Diego Dragon tooth right that's what we're talking about here Diego Dragon tooth that's a nice title I like it makes me want to know what what this dragon's doing right fun B tier Diego Dragon tooth or Diego draan and is this the final one I think this is the final one on the Kinder spiel's list the magic Labyrinth it's it's fun isn't it I've already said mag magic is a bit of a boring term magic maze Magic Mountain the magic Labyrinth would it be better if it was The Enchanted Labyrinth enchanted magic they keep uh switching those up are there any other words for magic occult Labyrinth Arcane Labyrinth they're not working are they that's fine this is an a tier entry uh that is US done for the Kinder Spiel games so we're now on to the kenes Spiel the connoisseurs Choice the more complex games and we there's fewer of these okay CU it's only been going since 2011 so first up is the game challenges I don't mind it it's a single word it's a bit like code names it feels like it probably should have been done before feels a bit like maybe a game that you might have seen in the 1980s or something like that so maybe we're past but that's okay it's quite iconic it's a fun word it's Lively action-packed I'm going to say that that is a b tier living Forest I don't really like this um title I think it's pretty bland it's just sort of falls into the kind of Realms of all those nature games but there's nothing really jumping out about this one from its title alone doesn't even really capture the the supposed magical aspect probably because they can't call it enchanted forest aren all forests living most of them hopefully I don't know I think that's pretty dull C tier I've been looking for a c tier haven't I let's put it in there C tier paleo when did this game happen when does your game take place paleo that's that's that is a a a time isn't it a time period paleo I'm sure it is I'm sure it is I like it I think it's yeah a fun word right it ends with an O like Ludo cludo quicko Quinto all of that lot pcoo yeah paleo Calico yeah great I like it I think it's a good name for a game I mean it's got a fantastic cover as well off topic got to remember it's just about the name paleo very good I'm calling this EST tier really like it what a good name the crew the Quest for Planet 9 the crew tells you it's Cooperative doesn't it but it's not very exciting like a crew is not a very exciting like the the the team the um the posy um those would be quite good titles wouldn't they for a game but the crew not so sure the Quest for Planet 9 very generic and long and forgettable I don't think this is a great title really it's a good game well these are all good games aren't they they're all Spiel as Yara as winners C tier for me the crew the Quest for Planet 9 wingspan that's a brilliant title love it it's a sort of slightly I love those slightly unfamiliar words like the words that you know what they mean but you don't use them every day it it's clearly about Birds because it's got a massive bird on it but it's not just about birds it's about their wingspan and it doesn't actually feature that much in the game does it a little bit in the game enough to get away with it but very memorable title um oh I think it's excellent I think that's an S tier title I think that title is one of the ones that proves how powerful a title can be right there's all sorts of things that wingspan does extremely well in terms of its product design but don't underestimate the power of that title the quacks of quedlinburg it's really fun to say um all those cu's in it a Bo board games love a q they love a q at the beginning of the word almost as much as they love an O at the end of the word quto quicko Quinto quacks of quedlinburg really fun silly title it's a silly I know it's a real I know it's a real place it's very patronizing of me uh and Anglo Centric of me to describe a German Town as a silly word but quedlinburg is a ridiculous place name I'm sorry the quacks of quedlinburg really fun alliterative um yeah invites you to play probably a little bit hard to remember but quacks is easy right you type quacks board game uh and you're going to find it yeah this is working well for me I think this is an S tier game and you can see how they struggled to kind of follow this with uh D Tavern and Von teth andal or the taverns of teth and tal like this was like the followup from the same designer the same publisher and although it's still got that same alliteration and that same naming convention the something of something um it's not as fun to say it's cuz it's T's rather than Q's simple as that really isn't it trips off the tongue the quacks of quedlinburg EST Tia love it exit the game this is the I haven't played the unlock Series so I can't say which uh escape room series is better but in terms of a title I like the title unlock better than exit okay exit's got that nice X in it like Dixit okay pixit okay these are these are nice words exit is a nice word but it's not quite as I don't know it's a bit more passive than unlock okay exit is something I can just do right I can just walk out the door unlock I've got to actually get the key and turn it right to get myself out it tells me I'm in a locked environment it's a bit more evocative I think so I think I prefer unlock to exit as a title for an escape room game I think it's better but exit is good don't get me wrong exit is good I'm going to say it's a be here I of sky die from chiefton to King I'm not a fan of titles that are named after places okay yeah i' I'd love to design a game about Cardiff right where I live would a game called Cardiff cell probably not is of Sky I like a little bit better because it is Isle of bit like is of cats and so that's nice it's just a little bit more again a bit more fun to say a little bit more evocative sounds the ey of Sky sounds a little bit more mystical and Fantastical even though it's not it's just a real place from Chieftain to King is rubbish like what what is that about I understand the reference to Chieftain and perhaps that would be a better title for the game just Chieftain or something like that because that it it gives it that Scottish feel but to King where's the king come into it I've played this game a million times and I can't I haven't played it a million times played it a lot of times and I don't remember there ever being anything about a king in this game yeah it's okay as place names go this is a good one but place names do not fill me with joy C here broom service nice pun we haven't had too many puns have we in these field as yarz ones I love a good pun all my prototypes have puns and word play in the title that's why the Publishers always change it broom service is a good pun um and it tells you the story that we're dealing here with witches flying around on brooms it's got a story book feel to it memorable it's an excellent game as well broom service and it is a pickup and deliver game so you are delivering that you are providing a service you're flying around on your brooms what is this game about what are you doing in the game broom service yeah it works like it very much I'm going to say this is an AER Istanbul oh detier sorry I just can't I just can't have it anymore all these City Games how am I supposed to know which one this is like I really I talked about this in the other video really like the name the game Brugge okay now it's been reimplemented it's called hamburg what how am I supposed to know which game is which okay there's cities so many games with city names could we try and do something a little bit more interesting I don't like it I'm calling it a d tier Legends of Andor this is that classic DND D inspired generic of generia title isn't it this of this Legends of madeup word and yet I quite like it I think it's quite fun again we're not making high art here um we're making board games and this one sounds fun Fantastical and or quite a nice name sounds a little bit tolken esque doesn't it yeah I think this is good maybe cuz it's not taking it too seriously it's talking about Legends it's not coming up with some convoluted title it's clear that this is sort of family level sort of game I think it's been a long time since I've played it B tier Legends of Andor Village no no no no no no no no there's there was a sequel wasn't there my Village that's even worse that's just patronizing I think once we get to that my Village I don't like game titles with my in the title uh my farm shop I think was the worst one quite a nice little game terrible title my farm shop don't like Village as a title all that much C tier Seven Wonders yeah this is good really good exciting recognizable you understand immediately what it's going to be about real world setting but not boring it's not Istanbul is it it's not a village Seven Wonders yeah I love it great there's a lot of stuff Seven Wonders does right in terms of it product design um and its presentation particularly in fact I think repost are very very good at this stuff so uh Seven Wonders s tier really really good and that finishes us off doesn't it that is 15 years of the spielers yurs awards and the titles so please do go back if you haven't already and watch my other video where I talk about this in a little bit more detail and take it a little bit more seriously and try and give you some tips about how you might name your board game if you're designing it I hope you enjoyed the video if you did please watch some of my others there's all sorts of videos on my Channel about all different aspects of board game design but what you probably want to do is go and watch this one all the best