Every summer, a jury of board game critics from Germany, Switzerland, and Austria announces its pick for Game of the Year, or "Spiel des Jahres" (SdJ). The board game world has its fair share of award ceremonies, but none is quite as prestigious or important as the SdJ. The award assures wide promotion and a healthy sales bump both in Germany and abroad; previous winners have included such undisputed classics as Catan and Qwirkle. Most of the games nominated for the 2016 prize were initially released in 2015; to be considered for the award, they needed to have been released in the German market within the past 12 months.

This past weekend, we took an exhaustive, 8,000-word look at all the nominees across two categories, and we waited patiently to hear who would come out on top. The winners were announced today.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the main "Spiel des Jahres" award went to the word-association party game Codenames. Released near the end of last year, Codenames has taken the board game world by storm; Board Game Geek users have quickly voted the title the best party game of all time (for good reason, too). We've never introduced the game to anyone—from kids to gamers to grandparents—who didn't instantly fall in love with it.

The game sees two teams racing to cover up cards on a 5x5 grid through word association. Each card holds a single word, and the mission is to select only those words that belong to your team. Choosing a word that belongs to the opposing team could give away points, while accidentally selecting the hidden "assassin" card immediately ends the match. The only clue as to which cards are safe to select comes from the team's spymaster, and it can only be a single word—followed by the number of cards to which it applies.

The other nominees for the SdJ were tile-laying maze game Karuba and Egyptian-themed huge-cube pusher Imhotep.

The second category up for grabs was for the "Kennerspiel des Jahres," which tackles slightly more complex games (though they still need to be accessible to a wide audience). Here, the winner was a bit more surprising. Tile-laying auction game Isle of Skye took the top prize, beating out powerhouse nominees Pandemic Legacy and T.I.M.E Stories. If the award was given on massive popularity alone, Pandemic Legacy would have been the obvious choice. But Isle of Skye makes sense if you've been paying attention to previous years' winners, and the game is definitely deserving of the recognition. This is the second win in a row for Alexander Pfister and Andreas Pelikan; the team also won the Kennerspiel last year for Broom Service.

In Isle of Skye, players lay tiles to build a Carcassonne-like kingdom—but they buy those tiles from each other. Each round, players price tiles to sell to their opponents. After a round of buying, they build up their kingdoms based on simple tile placement rules. At the end of each round, one or more of four scoring conditions is triggered, and players rack up points. It's a simple game that provides a lot of space for tough decisions.

The winner of the children's "Kinderspiel" category was announced earlier in the year, and that prize went to My First Stone Age. Leo and Mmm! were the other finalists.

Those wanting to dig deeper than the three finalists for each prize can check out the jury's lists of additional "recommended" games for the Spiel des Jahres and the Kennerspiel. The Kennerspiel list in particular is full of great games, including the Viking card-drafting brawler Blood Rage, which we reviewed earlier this year.

For more board gaming coverage, check out the Ars Cardboard archives.