A quick family game about tidying shelves in a wizard's shop could make board-game history. Morty Sorty Magic Shop, designed by Markus Slawitscheck and published by Schmidt Spiele, is one of three nominees for the Spiel des Jahres 2026, with the winner revealed in Berlin on Sunday 12 July.
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See how it worksThe premise is exactly as daft as it sounds, and that is the charm. Two to four players are apprentices at Morty Sorty's magical shop, picking up jars of ingredients and slotting them onto shelves so the priciest items sit up top and the numbers climb neatly from left to right. It plays in about half an hour, suits ages 8 and up, and hides a surprisingly tight scoring puzzle under its teach-in-a-minute rules.
The bigger story is the designer behind it. Markus Slawitscheck already has two of the three German game-of-the-year awards on his shelf: he co-designed Challengers!, the 2023 Kennerspiel des Jahres winner, and Magic Keys, which took the Kinderspiel des Jahres in 2024. Win the main prize with Morty Sorty and he would complete the set, something no designer has managed in the award's 47-year history.
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Start organising for freeHe is up against Corey Konieczka's cooperative sticker builder Cozy Stickerville and the party word game Dito!, so a humble tidy-up puzzle taking the top prize would say plenty about the jury's mood this year. We will find out on 12 July. If light, clever puzzles suit your table, it is an easy one to get on the table.
Sources: Spiel des Jahres | Pegasus / Schmidt Spiele | Spiel des Jahres history | BoardGameWire
