Announcing the finalists for the 2026 Cardboard Edison Award!
The Cardboard Edison Award recognizes great unpublished board games
Astrolabe
Designer: Yasaman Farazan
2-5 players
45-90 minutes
Players are exorcists in a Persian folklore world, using astrolabes to read the stars, hunt demons, and bind them into artifacts. 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.
Black Ruth of Dogtown
Designer: Keith DeViere Donaldson
1-4 players
30 minutes
Black Ruth of Dogtown is a procedural oracle system driven by a circular mancala drafting mechanism, where players construct a three-by-three grid to optimize set collection and speculative scoring in service of a final narrative divination resolution.
Braggin' Wranglers
Designer: Luke Wolyncewicz
2-8 players
15 minutes
Braggin' Wranglers sees players catching animals to score points using a unique adjustable lasso—but there's a twist! Turn order is decided by your lasso size, which you secretly set at the start of each round!
Catacombes de Paris
Designer: Nicholas Henning
2-5 players
70-110 minutes
In Catacombes de Paris, players take on the solemn duty of transporting the remains of millions through the bustling streets of 18th-century Paris to build their personal ossuary in the famed Catacombs. This highly thematic experience combines a strategic pick-up-and-deliver system with an engaging polyomino mini-game for building out your ossuary board.
Deductive Seasoning
Designer: Eric Ledger
2-5 players
20-40 minutes
Deductive Seasoning is a family-friendly deduction card game where you are a food scientist who has concocted a dish using a secret ingredient from the Periodic Table of Flavor. You must figure out other players’ secret ingredient through careful play and observation.
Goa Kranti
Designer: Andy Desa
2-4 players
60-90 minutes
A cooperative game about an overlooked chapter in history: Goa's struggle for independence from Portugal (1932-1961). Players embody historical freedom fighters choosing between violent resistance and peaceful satyagraha. Core mechanisms include push-your-luck resource gathering, deck improvement, and bag-building for a pivotal mid-game check when India gains independence.
Hatchlings
Designer: Alan Leduc
2-5 players
30 minutes
You’re a Nature Spirit with one job. Get your baby sea turtles out of their comfortable nest, across the beach, and into the water where they belong, thus earning praise from Mother Nature. It would be easy if it weren’t for the relentless bully Steven Seagull and the other Spirits competing for glory.
Hybrid Hijinks
Designer: Jena Keesee
3-5 players
60 minutes
A competitive game, creating hybrid creatures and utilizing variable, configurable player powers to impress visitors and earn the most approval for shifting prowess.
Ladybugs
Designer: Michael Posada
1-4 players
30 minutes
Push your luck by rolling dice that represent a colony of ladybugs flying over a field of flowers. Your rolls determine which flowers you add to your garden, which scoring conditions you unlock, and how many points you earn.
The Leftovers
Designer: Larry Ted McBride
2-4 players
25 minutes
The Leftovers is a cooperative trick-taking game of community deck-building, resource management, strategy, and story. With your party of magical foodfolk, you will work together to complete objectives and avoid vicious food fiends as you explore the abandoned halls of the Enchanted Ladle.
Limelight
Designer: Cameron Fleming
3-6 players
45 minutes
Limelight is a push-your-luck deckbuilder about staging a Broadway show. Over three Acts, you'll audition talent, hire crew, and rehearse your show, trying to achieve the perfect mix of cards on Opening Night.
Match Patch
Designer: Jack Rosen
3-5 players
20 minutes
Match Patch is a game about the benefits of farming using companion planting methods. Mechanically, it is a card-matching race game where players try to diversify their harvested crops.
Midnight Spawn
Designer: Jayson Farrell
1-4 players
60 minutes
Midnight Spawn is a game about the mysterious and incredible deep sea. In this game you’re a researcher in your deep-submergence vehicle, or DSV. You’ll discover strange creatures and observe them eat or move other creatures, manipulating the shared board. You can also upgrade your DSV with tech cards or boost your score with research cards.
Moonforge
Designer: Pawel Owsianka
1-4 players
90 minutes
In Moonforge, players command large space facilities capable of capturing asteroids, extracting valuable resources (energy, metal and minerals), and upgrading their operations with new modules and functions. Resources can be sold for currency points, while depleted asteroids contribute material toward the creation of a new moon.
PiramiDuel
Designers: Guillermo Viciano, Diego Ibañez & Juanjo Quintero
2 players
20-30 minutes
A game for two players where you will explore Ancient Egypt, fighting to claim the most influential pyramids.
Possessions
Designer: Dan Nichols
2-4 players
60-90 minutes
Possessions is a competitive strategy game where you play as ghosts with one hour to finish your unfinished business and fulfill your final wishes. As the clock ticks down, strive to get the most value from your secret ambitions by possessing your family’s last living heirs.
The Roots of All Evil
Designer: Dean Burry
2-4 players
15-20 minutes
Be the first animal cultist to summon the tree demon Blackthorn by creating ever-expanding rings of root cards in which to place your sacred offerings.
StrongHolds
Designer: Nelson de Castro
2 players
40-60 minutes
StrongHolds is a competitive castle-building game featuring magnetic tiles that allow players to build vertically unlike any other game. Harness your creativity and vision as a Medieval Architect, while sabotaging your opponent by tossing and sliding siege tiles to topple their progress.
The Wedding Planner
Designer: Jose Lema
2-4 players
60-90 minutes
You just got engaged! Now you have 12 months to plan the wedding of your dreams. The Wedding Planner is a medium-weight strategy game that captures the authentic pressure of the process: an overwhelming workload, finite resources, and the constant tension between vision and reality.
Wunderkammer
Designer: Rosco Schock
2-4 players
45 minutes
Wunderkammer is a set collection style game with a unique simultaneous silent auction acquisition mechanism. Each curiosity that you collect also has two attributes so the scoring of your collection is scored in each dimension.
Timeline for the 2026 Cardboard Edison Award
January 1: submissions open
January 31: submissions close
February: first-round judging
late February: finalists announced
April 8: finalist prototypes due
April: finalist judging
May: winners announced
Cardboard Edison Best Practices 2026
It’s out now! Our annual Cardboard Edison Best Practices booklet, filled with board game design tips and resources for every step of the process, is back!
In this edition, you’ll find:
How to make the most of a playtest group
What should be in a pitch video—and what shouldn’t
Mistakes to avoid with your prototype’s art
Onboarding players more smoothly
How to prepare for indie game markets
…and lots more!
2026 Supporters of Cardboard Edison
Alpha Player Supporters
Game Master Supporter
Kingmaker Supporters
Meeple Supporters
Judges for the 2026 Cardboard Edison Award
More judges coming soon!
Click for bios
See the results from previous years’ Cardboard Edison Award
Rules for the 2026 Cardboard Edison Award
Submissions:
Submissions must include a brief description of the game, a 3-minute video overview, and a rules document, in addition to a $25 submission fee (or Patreon code). See the submissions page for full guidelines.
Judging process:
Submissions will go through two rounds of judging.
First-round submissions will be judged based on:
engagement
originality of theme
originality of mechanics
Finalists will be judged based on:
engagement
smoothness of play
fit for target audience
In both rounds, judges will consider how each game handles its theme.
Finalists will need to mail us a physical prototype for final in-person judging. Prototypes must be received no later than April 8.
All submissions will receive pitch feedback from the judges. Finalists will receive full playtest feedback from the judges.
One design will be chosen as the winner, at the judges' discretion. We may also name runners-up.
Restrictions:
To be eligible for the award, designs must not be available for purchase at any point before June 2026.
Designs may not be licensed to a publisher during the period of the award. Additionally, we ask that designers refrain from holding licensing discussions with publishers about any submitted design while it is being evaluated for the award.
Designers must be 18 years or older to enter.
Cardboard Edison Award judges and sponsors are not eligible to enter.
Designs must be original works that do not infringe on any intellectual property.
Board, card, and dice games are eligible. Sorry, no RPGs or videogames.
Designs should be complete and playtested before being submitted. Prototypes do not need to have final artwork or graphics, but they should be clear and usable.
All designs remain the intellectual property of the designers.
FAQs
Where can I find out more about how the award is run?
Check out our “Inside the Cardboard Edison Award” article. It goes super in-depth on the entire process of the award from start to finish.
Can non-U.S. designers participate?
Yes! There are only two restrictions. First, the rulebook must be in English, and the components must be either in English or language-neutral. And second, you must be able to mail a physical copy of the prototype to the U.S. if your design is chosen as a finalist.
Can I submit more than one design?
Yes, you may submit as many designs as you want, as long as you pay the entry fee for each.
Is the award only for new designers, or can published designers participate?
The Cardboard Edison Award is open to unpublished games from both new and published designers.
Is my design eligible if it’s going to be on Kickstarter?
The award is for designs that aren’t available as a final product. That includes any games that are on Kickstarter (or any other crowdfunding platform) or will be before June 2026. If you plan on crowdfunding your game after its participation in the award is complete, that’s fine.
What if the design was sold at an indie game market?
Since the award is for designs that haven’t been available for purchase, games that have been sold through an indie market aren’t eligible. However, if you have made changes to the design that are substantial enough to make it a different game, it would be eligible.
What if the design was released as a free print-and-play?
That’s fine, as long as it hasn’t been made available for purchase as a final product. But games that are available to purchase through print-on-demand outlets such as The Game Crafter or DriveThruCards aren’t eligible.
Why can't I discuss licensing with publishers while participating in the award?
Many of our judges are publishers, and they often express interest in designs that have been submitted. But to maintain the integrity of the judging process, we ask judges not to reach out to designers whose games are in the running. So we ask designers to politely hold off on any licensing discussions with publishers until everyone can approach the games on the same ground.
How finished does the game have to be?
There’s no hard and fast rule, but we expect that you’ll have thoroughly playtested the game and that it’s complete, or close to it, before submitting it. Complete games will naturally score better with the judges.
Can my game use AI-generated artwork?
The award celebrates human creativity and great board game designs, and judges are told to disregard the quality of prototypes when evaluating submissions. For those reasons, the use of AI-generated artwork is strongly discouraged.
I submitted my game to the Cardboard Edison Award in a previous year. Can I submit it again this year?
Yes, as long as the game has undergone changes since then. We also strongly suggest making a new pitch video that represents the current version of the game.
What if my game was a previous finalist? Can I re-submit it?
Finalists from prior years may re-submit their game if the changes made in the interim are substantial enough to make it a different game.
Is it OK if I know some of the judges personally?
Yes. To head off any conflicts of interest, each submission will be reviewed by multiple judges, and we'll aim to have judges review submissions by designers they don't know.
Why is “originality” one of the judging criteria?
Thousands of new board games are released each year, and we want to highlight games that bring something new to the table.
Why do I have to make a video?
Video submissions have been used to great effect in game design contests (including ours), and we think it's the best way of letting you highlight what's interesting about your game. In addition, many publishers request video overviews as part of their pitching process, so we think it’s good practice for designers!
What needs to be in the video?
Use the video to tell us about the game and how it plays. Give a sense of what players do in the game, and highlight what makes it unique and engaging. You don’t need to provide a full rules explanation or playthrough. And keep it brief. No more than 3 minutes. (And shorter is better.) Your video can be as simple or complex as you wish, but we won't be looking at the video's production values when we evaluate the submissions.
Do I need to be in the video?
No. If you'd rather not have your face or voice appear in it, your video can describe the game using visuals and text.
What if the video is more than 3 minutes long?
We tell judges to not feel obligated to keep watching past the 3-minute mark.
What will the submission fee be used for?
The submission fee will help offset the costs of the award itself. The most significant expense will be the final judging events. Judges need to eat! Neither we nor the judges are paid for doing the award. In the interest of transparency, we would add that over the first 10 years of the award, we’ve come out more or less break-even financially. We aren’t doing this for the money!
Can I get the submission fee waived?
If you would like to apply for a waiver to the submission fee, email us at cardboardedison@gmail.com.
Will I get feedback even if my design isn't chosen as a finalist?
Yes! We will pass along pitch feedback from the judges that evaluate your submission.
How many finalists will be chosen?
We will select between 10 and 20 finalists in the first round of judging. We also might give some games honorable mentions.
If my game is chosen as a finalist, can I make changes before sending in the prototype?
Yes! We hope the judges’ feedback helps you refine your game in time for finalist judging. We also strongly suggest that finalists run an unguided (blind) test of their rulebook before sending in their prototype.
What do I get if I win?
We created the Cardboard Edison Award to recognize great unpublished game designs. We’ll promote the winning designs on our website and through social media. Also, the winners can use the award logo in any marketing materials for their design. In addition, all finalists will receive in-depth, detailed feedback from the judges’ panel.
What has happened to previous winners?
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, successfully Kickstarted; Octochef, currently unpublished
2021: Winter, published by Devir; Surf’s Up, published by The Op as The Perfect Wave; Octopus Scramble, published by Sit Down! as Octocube
2022: Capetalism, published by The Op as Stalk Exchange; Roux Mates, currently unpublished
2023: Diatoms, successfully Kickstarted
2024: Crowded Frontier, currently unpublished
2025: Dot Com, under contract
Can I get my prototype back after final judging?
Yes, we can send your prototype back to you or to a third party, if you like. We’ll return or forward any prototypes as long as the designer lets us know within a month of the contest ending.