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2026 Cardboard Edison Award — Comprehensive Research Summary
Winner: Astrolabe by Yasaman Farazan
The Designer
- Yasaman Farazan: Iranian game designer, video game veteran (programmer and game designer)
- Originally from Iran, now living in Germany
- Attended the Iranian Game Developers Institute
- Astrolabe is her first board game design — originally designed in Iran, developed further over years in Germany
- Background: video game programming and design
The Game: Astrolabe
- Theme: Persian folklore — players are exorcists hunting and binding demons
- Core component: Physical "astrolabe" device used for action selection
- Mechanism: Each round, players secretly rotate their astrolabe to choose an action, a number, and a time of day, then reveal and resolve actions in ascending order
- Players: 2–5
- Duration: 45–90 minutes
- Tagline from Cardboard Edison: "Players are exorcists in a Persian folklore world, using astrolabes to read the stars, hunt demons, and bind them into artifacts."
Judge Quotes (verified from primary sources)
From the Cardboard Edison official award page (https://cardboardedison.com/award):
"The astrolabe action-selection system is so cool! It kind of broke my brain, but in a good way!"
"This game is amazing. The theme, components, and gameplay really come together to create a joyful experience."
"The action selection system you've designed is genius. The titular astrolabe is thematic, toyetic, and an absolute joy to engage with."
"Astrolabe is an incredible, replayable, strategic game that I want to keep playing."
"Each mechanic has really satisfying intersections, from powering up artifacts with demons to selecting or storing cards. There's so many interesting choices to make."
"The theme and the mechanics mesh beautifully together."
From the BoardGameWire article (https://boardgamewire.com/index.php/2026/05/21/...):
"The debut design from Iranian video game veteran Yasaman Farazan was praised by judges for its 'genius' action selection system, which makes use of a physical 'astrolabe', calling it 'thematic, toyetic, and an absolute joy to engage with'."
Announcement Details
- Date announced: May 21, 2026
- Published: 12:22 PM UTC (1:22 PM BST) on BoardGameWire
- Author: Mike Didymus-True (BoardGameWire)
- Primary sources:
What Is the Cardboard Edison Award?
- Purpose: Award for unpublished board game designs — "The Cardboard Edison Award recognizes great unpublished board games"
- Founded by: Suzanne Zinsli, with help from fellow Cardboard Edison founder Chris Zinsli
- First awarded: 2016 (approximately a decade ago at time of 2026 award)
- Cardboard Edison background: Launched in 2012 as a board game design studio and hub, expanded from a blog into a vast repository of information for board game designers
What the Prize Includes
- Promotion of winning designs on the Cardboard Edison website and through social media
- Winners can use the award logo in marketing materials
- All finalists: Receive in-depth, detailed feedback from the judges' panel
- All submissions: Receive pitch feedback from judges
- The award aims to create publisher exposure — many judges are themselves publishers
Award Timeline (2026)
- January 1: Submissions open
- January 31: Submissions close
- February: First-round judging
- Late February: Finalists announced
- April 8: Finalist prototypes due (physical copies must arrive)
- April: Finalist judging
- May: Winners announced
Judging Criteria
- First round: Engagement, originality of theme, originality of mechanics
- Final round: Engagement, smoothness of play, fit for target audience
- Both rounds consider how each game handles its theme
Submission Requirements
- Brief game description
- 3-minute video overview (max, shorter is better)
- Rules document (in English; components must be English or language-neutral)
- $25 submission fee (or Patreon code — fee waivers available by email)
- Designers must be 18+; games must be unpublished and not available for purchase before June 2026
- No RPGs or video games — board, card, and dice games only
- AI-generated artwork "strongly discouraged"
2026 Sponsors/Supporters
- Alpha Player Supporters: Alley Cat Games, Back Office by Naylor Games
- Game Master Supporter: Off the Page Games
- Kingmaker Supporters: Breaking Games, Paverson Games, Flatout Games, Meeple Mountain
- Meeple Supporters: The Game Crafter, Stonemaier Games, Doomlings, Bad Comet
Record Submissions
- 396 entries in 2026 — a new record
- BoardGameWire: "a total which has almost quadrupled since Cardboard Edison unveiled its debut award winners a decade ago"
- Implies first year (2016) had approximately 100 entries
2026 Runners-Up
| Place | Game | Designer | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2nd | Limelight | Cameron Fleming | Push-your-luck deckbuilder about staging a Broadway show (3–6 players, 45 min). Toronto-based brand strategist, former theatre kid. Second game; first (Cola Wars) being published by One More Turn Games in 2026 |
| 3rd | Braggin' Wranglers | Luke Wolyncewicz | Players catch animals using a unique adjustable lasso (2–8 players, 15 min). Software engineer from New Zealand |
| 4th | Hatchlings | Alan Leduc | Get baby sea turtles across the beach into the water with a "unique and clever" movement queue mechanism (2–5 players, 30 min). Canadian designer known for Yukon Airways |
2026 Finalists (All 20)
- Astrolabe — Yasaman Farazan (WINNER)
- Limelight — Cameron Fleming (2nd)
- Braggin' Wranglers — Luke Wolyncewicz (3rd)
- Hatchlings — Alan Leduc (4th)
- Black Ruth of Dogtown — Keith DeViere Donaldson (circular mancala drafting)
- Catacombes de Paris — Nicholas Henning (pick-up-and-deliver + polyomino)
- Deductive Seasoning — Eric Ledger (family deduction card game)
- Goa Kranti — Andy Desa (cooperative, Goa's independence struggle 1932–1961)
- Hybrid Hijinks — Jena Keesee (hybrid creatures, configurable player powers)
- Ladybugs — Michael Posada (push-your-luck dice)
- Match Patch — Jack Rosen (card-matching race, companion planting)
- Midnight Spawn — Jayson Farrell (deep sea research, 1–4 players)
- Moonforge — Pawel Owsianka (asteroid mining, space facilities)
- PiramiDuel — Guillermo Viciano, Diego Ibañez & Juanjo Quintero (2-player Ancient Egypt)
- Possessions — Dan Nichols (ghosts finishing unfinished business)
- StrongHolds — Nelson de Castro (magnetic vertical castle-building, 2 players)
- The Leftovers — Larry Ted McBride (cooperative trick-taking, magical foodfolk)
- The Roots of All Evil — Dean Burry (animal cultists summoning tree demon)
- The Wedding Planner — Jose Lema (medium-weight strategy, wedding planning)
- Wunderkammer — Rosco Schock (set collection, silent auction)
Judges (80+ Judges in 2026)
Notable judges mentioned by name:
- Ben Rosset — designer of The Search for Planet X and Fromage
- Matthew Dunstan — creator of Elysium and Next Station: London
- Marceline Leiman — High Tide designer and Diana Jones Emerging Designer award winner
- Sammy Salkind — 2025 Cardboard Edison winner (Dot Com), former Ravensburger intern
- Geoff Engelstein — game designer and author
- Kathleen Mercury — game design educator
- Suzanne Zinsli — award founder
- Chris Zinsli — Cardboard Edison co-founder
- plus many more (full list on the Cardboard Edison award page)
Past Winners — Complete History (Verified)
| Year | Winner(s) | Published/Status |
|---|---|---|
| 2016 | The Blood of an Englishman | Published by Renegade Game Studios |
| 2017 | Castell | Published by Renegade Game Studios |
| 2018 | Animal Kingdoms | Published by Galactic Raptor Games |
| 2019 | Umbra Via | Published by Pandasaurus Games |
| 2020 | The Transcontinental, Octochef | Transcontinental: successfully Kickstarted; Octochef: currently unpublished |
| 2021 | Winter, Surf's Up, Octopus Scramble | Winter → Devir; Surf's Up → The Op as The Perfect Wave; Octopus Scramble → Sit Down! as Octocube |
| 2022 | Capetalism, Roux Mates | Capetalism → The Op as Stalk Exchange; Roux Mates → under contract |
| 2023 | Diatoms | Successfully Kickstarted, then retail publication by 25th Century Games + Ludoliminal |
| 2024 | Crowded Frontier | Currently unpublished |
| 2025 | Dot Com (Sammy Salkind) | Under contract — economic strategy game with real-time app |
| 2026 | Astrolabe (Yasaman Farazan) | Just announced |
Verification of Castell, Winter, Umbra Via
✅ Castell — Confirmed: 2017 winner, published by Renegade Game Studios (BGG: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/238566/castell) ✅ Winter — Confirmed: 2021 winner, published by Devir (BGG: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/244522/winter) ✅ Umbra Via — Confirmed: 2019 winner, published by Pandasaurus Games (BGG: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/301983/umbra-via)
All three are correctly listed in the context provided.
Key Context & Color from BoardGameWire
- BoardGameWire described the overall competition pedigree: "Part of that growth has been down to the competition's pedigree of winners that have gone on to be published by well-known studios."
- The article specifically highlighted that this year's finalists included a magnet-based vertical castle-building game (StrongHolds) and a medium-weight strategy title centred around wedding planning (The Wedding Planner).
- Last year's winner Dot Com was described as "an economic strategy game which uses an app to run players' money supplies down in real time... puts players in the shoes of startup founders battling to build their internet startups during the dot-com bubble of the late 1990s."
Sources
- Primary: Cardboard Edison Award page — https://cardboardedison.com/award
- Primary: BoardGameWire article by Mike Didymus-True, May 21, 2026 — https://boardgamewire.com/index.php/2026/05/21/iranian-designers-persian-folklore-game-about-exorcising-demons-wins-2026-cardboard-edison-award-which-celebrates-the-best-in-unpublished-designs/
- Primary: Cardboard Edison homepage — https://cardboardedison.com/
- Reference: BoardGameGeek — Castell (238566), Winter (244522), Umbra Via (301983)