Spiel des Jahres

The nominations for the 2011 award were released on 23 May 2011. The three games nominated were

• Qwirkle - Susan McKinley Ross, Schmidt Spiele
• Asara - Wolfgang Kramer and Michael Kiesling - Ravensburger
• The Forbidden Island - Matt Leacock - Schmidt Spiele

This year, an additional category "Kennerspiel des Jahres" was also introduced for more complex games. The three nominated games for this category were

• 7 Wonders - Antoine Bauza - Repos Production
• Strasbourg - Stefan Feld - Pegasus Spiele
• Lancaster - Matthias Cramer - Queen Games