We congratulate the winner of 2026: In this year’s Hippodice Competition, a board game design competition, Florian Maas secured first place with his trick-taking game “On the run!”. In the 36th edition of our competition, he prevailed in a multi-stage process against more than 320 entries from a total of 36 countries.
ON THE RUN! is a trick-taking game where the cards are your loot. But be careful: at the end of each round, the police search a house number – if you’ve taken as many tricks as that number, you’ll be caught and your loot confiscated!
Number of players: 3–4
Age recommendation: 10+
Playing time: 30–45 minutes
Target audience: Experienced players
Second place went to the two-player game “Khamzara” by Wolfgang Dirscherl and Wolfgang Lehmann. Third place was taken by Patricia Limberger and Felix Leder with their game “Xterminators”. Congratulations to all the winners!
More details about the winners and all the games that participated in the 2026 final round can be found on our 2026 competition results page.
Such a competition is only possible with a lot of dedication: Over 50 people from our Hippodice Spieleclub e. V. (a registered non-profit association) were involved in its execution, dedicating more than 1,200 volunteer hours to promoting board games as a cultural asset. First, our review team selected 25 games based on the submitted rulebooks. In the main round, these were then put through their paces and evaluated in at least three playtesting sessions each by our club members and guests. Based on these evaluations, we identified the ten finalists, which were presented in the final round to eleven experienced editors and developers from board game publishers.
Alongside Hutter Trade / HUCH!, Skellig Games, frechverlag (TOPP), and NSV, this year’s final selection also involved AMIGO, Kosmos, H-Town Games, Hans im Glück, Deep Print Games, and Pegasus Spiele. Thank you very much for the great cooperation!
Our special thanks also go to all the partners who actively supported us again this year: Spielezentrum Stadt Herne, Spieleautorenzunft (SAZ) and J’s Creative World.
