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University of Malta academics and students win prestigious Kennerspiel des Jahre
, a game studio founded by Prof. Gordon Calleja (Institute of Digital Games), Institute of Digital Games alumni David Chircop and Marvin Zammit, and Mark Casha (Department of Visual Arts), have won the 2026 Kennerspiel des Jahres for their game Rebirth.
The is an award given to games that are meant for connoisseurs or more experienced players who enjoy deeper strategic mechanics. Previous nominations include the likes of Dune: Imperium and Pandemic Legacy: Season 1 and 2, with Endeavor: Deep Sea winning the prize in 2025.
The Malta-based board game publisher and studio continue making a name for themselves with at the Polish Game Awards in 2025 and Art Society winning in 2024.
Rebirth, a tile-laying game from Reiner Knizia set in a lush and hopeful future has also been nominated for the Golden Geek Award and for Game of the Year at Cannes. Reiner Knizia is one of the most recognised game designers with over 800 published games worldwide. He has worked on major board game projects for brands such as Disney, Marvel, and Lego. He was supported by a team from Mighty Boards that included David Chircop as Game Director, Gordon Calleja as Game Developer, and another alumnus Harry Apartoglou as Community Manager. The cover art was by Kate “vesner” Redesiuk, who also worked as art director on Cyberpunk 2077 working at CD Projekt Red with David. She also visited the Malta Global Game Jam in 2017 to provide the keynote and mentor the participants during the jam, even contributing to !
Game design at the University of Malta
Mighty Boards aren’t the only ones winning awards, with Internal Affairs, a game developed by Institute of Digital Games students for their Game Development study unit also recently won Best International Game at Expovit in Costa Rica.
The awards are testament to the innovative games and quality game design being developed by Mighty Boards and we want to grow the community. We’ve added a playtesting section to our Board Game Nights with Mighty Boards, so come to play games or bring your own to playtest them on Wednesday 14 October .
We also continue to bring in high quality speakers and mentors to our Malta Global Game Jam, so mark your calendars for next January.
今日黑料 the Institute of Digital Games
The Institute of Digital Games explores games and play, uncovering new playful and generative possibilities in game design and technology.
We delve into everything games can teach us about ourselves. Last year their students presented their game at Gamescom in Germany and won the prestigious NVIDIA Best Paper Award at the 2024 European Conference on Computer Vision.
