As d'Or Nominees for 2022

The Festival International des Jeux, held annually in Cannes, France at the end of February, has announced the nominees for the 2022 As d'Or — France's game of the year award.

For 2022, the ~~eight~~ nine-member jury has added a new category to its standard three of children's, expert's game, and game for everyone, with this new category being "initié" or "initiated", a category seemingly for games that are somewhat more involved than the "everyone" choices, but not quite as involved as the "expert" choices.

Check out the nominees below to see whether you agree with that assessment:

As d'Or

• 7 Wonders: Architects, by Antoine Bauza and Repos Production
• Cartaventura: Lhasa, by Thomas Dupont, Arnaud Ladagnous, and BLAM !
• Happy City, by Airu and Toshiki Sato and Cocktail Games

As d'Or — children

• Bubble Stories, by Matthew Dunstan and Blue Orange Games
• My First Castle Panic, by Justin DeWitt and Fireside Games (Space Cow in France)
• Pin Pon!, by Julie Bregeot and Djeco

As d'Or — initié

• Living Forest, by Aske Christiansen and Ludonaute
• Nouvelles ContRées, by Germain Winzenschtark and Olibrius Editions
• Oltréé, by Antoine Bauza, John Grümph, and Studio H

As d'Or — expert

• Dune: Imperium, by Paul Dennen and Dire Wolf
• IKI, by Koota Yamada and Sorry We Are French
• Lost Ruins of Arnak, by Elwen, Mín, and Czech Games Edition

The winners will be announced on February 24, 2022, just ahead of the FIJ 2022 game fair in Cannes...assuming that fair opens as normal. In any case, should you not be in Cannes as is the case for most of us, you can watch the ceremony on the FIJ Facebook page.