LucysToys is proud to announce that Qwirkle won Germany’s major toy award, the Spiel des Jahres (Game of the Year) on 27 June. The Spiel des Jahres is an award for board and card games, created in 1978 with the stated purpose of rewarding excellence in game design, and promoting top-quality games in the German market. It is thought that the existence and popularity of the award is one of the major drivers of the quality of games coming out of Germany. A Spiel des Jahres winner can usually expect to sell 300,000 to 500,000 copies. The award is given by a jury of German-speaking board game critics (from Germany, Austria, Switzerland), who review games released in Germany in the preceding twelve months.

The criteria on which a game is evaluated are;

1. game concept (originality, playability, game value)

2. rule structure (composition, clearness, comprehensibility)

3. layout (box, board, rules),

4. design (functionality, workmanship)

Qwirkle is a deceptively clever game and has been sold in the UK by LucysToys for the last two years.  Qwirkle is as simple as matching colours and shapes, however tactical manoeuvres and well-planned strategy is also needed. Qwirkle is our best-selling board game.

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Brainbox games offer true educational fun, plus they are produced by a British company (the GreenBoardGame company) - attractive packaging that is recycled although this is hard to tell - so they make suitable inexpensive gifts. Versions include My First ABC brainbox, Maths Brainbox, Art Brainbox and Dinosaur Brainbox.

How do you play these games?

Here are the rules:

1. The youngest player takes a card from the "Brain Box"  and turns over the 10 second timer.
2. The card is passed to the other player, and the first player rolls the die. The question with the number as on the dieis read out and the player must then try to answer.
3. The other player reads the answer and the question is checked.
4. If correct, you keep the card; if incorrect you return the card to the brain box.
5. In 10 minutes, the player with the most cards wins!