The Cardboard Edison Award has revealed its 20 finalists for 2026, whittled down from a record 396 entries. For anyone who loves seeing where board game design is heading before publishers get involved, this list is worth a look.
The variety on show is striking. StrongHolds by Nelson de Castro uses magnets to let players build castles vertically, then lay siege to each other's fortresses. Astrolabe by Yasaman Farazan draws on Persian folklore, tasking players with reading stars and hunting demons. And Limelight by Cameron Fleming is a deckbuilder about staging a Broadway show.
There is also a cooperative game about Goa's independence struggle (Goa Kranti by Andy Desa), a delivery game set in Paris involving ossuary construction (Catacombes de Paris by Nicholas Henning), and a cooperative trick-taking game starring sentient food characters (The Leftovers by Larry Ted McBride). The full list runs from The Wedding Planner, a medium-weight strategy game about managing a 12-month wedding schedule, to Possessions, a ghost story where you possess heirs to fulfil final wishes.
Now in its 11th year, the award has become a genuine pipeline to retail. Past winners include Castell (published by Renegade), Umbra Via (Pandasaurus), and Winter (Devir). The 2023 champion Diatoms, a game about Victorian naturalists growing algae mosaics, raised over $63,000 on Kickstarter before landing on shelves through 25th Century Games.
Over 80 judges evaluated this year's field, including The Search for Planet X co-designer Ben Rosset and Next Station: London creator Matthew Dunstan. Winners will be announced in May.
Sources: BoardGameWire | Cardboard Edison