When Messe Essen opens its doors from October 22 to 25, figuring out which games deserve your attention will not be easy. SPIEL Essen 2026 currently brings together 921 exhibitors from 53 countries, with well over 1,500 new games expected, and for the first time the show will occupy all eight halls of Messe Essen.
From that enormous lineup, we have selected 15 games we want to follow closely.
This is not a ranking of the “best games of SPIEL Essen 2026”. Many of them have not reached a wider audience yet, so claiming that would make little sense. Instead, these are games that stand out to us because of their designers, concepts, anticipation, international relevance or connection with the Spanish board game scene.
Meeplay will also be attending SPIEL Essen 2026 as a professional visitor, so we hope to see some of these games — and meet some of the people behind them — in Essen.
1. -60° (Sixty Below)
Alexander Pfister & Peter Prinz · Nanox Games / dlp games
Antarctica, 1971 — but not quite the history we know.
In -60°, research teams build networks of stations, explore an unforgiving frozen environment and race to reach the impact site of a mysterious meteorite. Technology and scarce resources must be managed across a series of expeditions.
The combination of the setting and designers Alexander Pfister and Peter Prinz immediately makes this one of our key games to watch. Nanox Games will publish German and English editions, distributed by dlp games, with copies already available to pre-order for collection at SPIEL Essen.
2. Entropy
Simone Luciani, Nestore Mangone & Tommaso Battista · Board & Dice
Building stars, planets, biomes and eventually life itself is an ambitious premise.
Entropy is a 1–4 player strategy game from Simone Luciani, Nestore Mangone and Tommaso Battista, lasting around 90–120 minutes. Players move their scientist around a circular action system while gradually constructing solar systems, developing planets and seeding them with different forms of life.
The design team alone makes Entropy noteworthy, but what interests us most is whether the cosmic theme can make its interconnected euro mechanisms feel like more than an abstract engine-building puzzle.
3. Queen Alice
Héctor Carrión & David Heras Pino · Combo Games
One of the Spanish releases generating the most curiosity ahead of Essen.
Inspired by Through the Looking-Glass, Queen Alice uses chess pieces and familiar chess movement as part of a mid-heavy eurogame about preparing Alice's coronation. Players improve their actions, build an engine and influence whether Alice ultimately becomes the Red or White Queen.
The game is designed by Héctor Carrión and David Heras Pino, with editions planned in English, Spanish, German and French. Essen pickup pre-orders are also available.
Its mix of Spanish design, distinctive presentation and unusual chess-based action system puts it firmly on our radar.
4. Timespan
Kenneth Minde & Kristian Amundsen Østby · Alion Games
A civilization game from the Stone Age to the space age in roughly 90 minutes is a very clear pitch.
Timespan supports 1–5 players and follows civilizations through four eras. Historical figures, technologies and buildings enter your timeline, while older cards gradually become part of your past. Cultural development, science, exploration and economic growth replace military conquest as the main routes forward.
The game has dedicated SPIEL Essen 2026 availability and pickup options, making this one we expect to see plenty of discussion around before the doors open.
5. Kingdom Come: Deliverance – The Board Game
Tomáš Holek & Vlaada Chvátil · Czech Games Edition
Few titles on this list arrive with an IP as recognizable as Kingdom Come: Deliverance.
CGE describes the board game as an adventure experience with euro elements set in 15th-century Bohemia. It supports 1–4 players and is designed by Tomáš Holek and Vlaada Chvátil.
SPIEL will also be an important moment for the release itself: CGE opened dedicated Essen pickup pre-orders on September 14, and a limited number of copies will be sold directly at the show.
The first collaboration between Holek and Chvátil would have made this worth watching even without the video game license.
6. Prague Unseen
Jindřich Pavlásek, Michal Peichl & Petr Vojtěch · ALBI
A flooded 19th-century Prague rebuilt with the help of mythical creatures is one of the more atmospheric premises in this year's lineup.
Prague Unseen is a worker-placement euro for 1–4 players where new action spaces can be constructed, influence is contested across districts and several interconnected systems reinterpret the myth-infused history of Prague.
ALBI has officially included it in its SPIEL Essen 2026 lineup, as part of what the publisher describes as its largest appearance at the fair so far.
7. Chronocritters
Tristan Geeraert · Delicious Games
Robot animals, worker placement and time travel make for a difficult combination to ignore.
In Chronocritters, some action spaces only exist at specific points in time. Players can build portals to reach actions from the past or future, but those portals gradually decay. A separate dice system is used for objectives and resource management.
It is Tristan Geeraert's first published design, and Delicious Games has confirmed that the game will be released at SPIEL Essen 2026.
We are particularly interested in seeing whether its time-travel system can bring something genuinely fresh to worker placement.
8. Gaudí
Dani Garcia · Devir
A board game based on the work and creative world of Antoni Gaudí was always likely to catch our attention.
Designed by Dani Garcia and illustrated by Edu Valls, Gaudí is a 1–4 player game with a listed playing time of around 60–100 minutes. Its mechanisms include tile placement and different development paths tied to the architect's influences and work.
Devir has already highlighted Gaudí as one of the titles heading towards SPIEL Essen 2026.
For an international audience, it is also one of the Spanish releases we are particularly interested in seeing represented at Essen.
9. Night at the Zoo
Tomáš Holek · ALBI
Not every game on an Essen watchlist needs to be a two-hour heavyweight euro.
Night at the Zoo is a family tile-drafting puzzle in which animals have escaped during the night and must find their way back. Different species move in different ways, creating a puzzle that promises simple rules but considerably more interesting decisions underneath them. It supports 1–4 players and lasts around 30 minutes.
ALBI has officially placed the game and its new expansions in its Essen 2026 lineup.
10. Carl von Linné
Michal Peichl · Pink Troubadour
Exploration, specimens, botanical gardens and scientific classification provide the setting for Carl von Linné.
The game casts players as 18th-century natural historians building knowledge and reputation through exploration and research. It supports 1–4 players and is listed at 60–120 minutes.
Pink Troubadour's English edition is scheduled for Q4 2026, and the publisher is listed at SPIEL with the game as part of its lineup.
Its scientific subject matter and action-selection ideas make it one of the quieter titles on this list that could prove particularly interesting.
11. ASHES: Blackout Protocol
Perro Loko Games
After a nuclear war devastates the world, humanity survives underground.
ASHES: Blackout Protocol revolves around shelters, civilians, resources and Project Phoenix — an attempt to make the surface habitable again. Over three rounds, players rescue survivors, construct shelters, travel across the map and contribute to rebuilding civilization.
Spanish publisher Perro Loko Games is taking the title to Essen, with dedicated show pickup pre-orders available alongside Níjar.
Its post-apocalyptic setting and international ambitions make it one of the Spanish games we particularly want to follow.
12. Níjar
David Bernal · Perro Loko Games
From nuclear devastation to traditional pottery in southern Spain.
Níjar is set in the Andalusian town during the 1920s, when ceramics, esparto and traditional textiles were central parts of the local economy. Players collect clay, shape pottery, fire and paint pieces and eventually sell them, turning the production process into the core of an economic eurogame.
Perro Loko has also opened dedicated Essen pickup pre-orders for the game.
The specificity of its setting is exactly why it stands out: this is not a theme that could easily be replaced by a generic medieval town.
13. Rooms & Roomies
Juri Alexander · Deep Print Games
Furniture shopping, loading a van and trying to create the right shared home for a group of potential roommates might not sound like a conventional strategy-game theme.
That is part of the appeal.
Rooms & Roomies runs over four in-game days as players collect furniture, fit it into their vans and use it to furnish homes while satisfying the preferences of different roomies. It supports 1–5 players and lasts around 30–75 minutes.
Deep Print calls it its big Essen release, with dedicated SPIEL pickup pre-orders already open.
14. Shugendo
Alessandro Cuneo & Simone Luciani · Devir
Simone Luciani makes a second appearance on this list, this time alongside Alessandro Cuneo.
Shugendo is part of Devir's Kemushi setting and takes a more compact approach, combining community development with push-your-luck decisions and the threat of encountering too many yōkai.
Devir has specifically shown Shugendo alongside Gaudí as part of the games it is taking towards SPIEL Essen 2026.
After Luciani's reputation for large, interconnected eurogames, seeing what this design team does in a more concentrated format is one of the reasons it makes our list.
15. Cubaneo
Michael Rieneck & Stefan Stadler · Deep Print Games
Our final game is technically both new and familiar.
Cubaneo is a revised edition of Cuba by Michael Rieneck and Stefan Stadler. It integrates the El Presidente expansion into the base game, revises rules and buildings and retains the economic core of producing goods, shipping them, constructing buildings and influencing legislation.
It supports 2–5 players and lasts around 75–120 minutes.
Deep Print explicitly confirms that Cubaneo will be released at SPIEL 2026, with a show promo and Essen pickup pre-orders.
Are these the best games of SPIEL Essen 2026?
Not yet — and that is exactly why this article does not call them that.
These are 15 games we believe are worth following before the fair. Most still need the one thing no preview, press release or rules explanation can replace: actual plays.
And with more than 1,500 new games expected at Essen, there will almost certainly be surprises we have not even discovered yet.
Meeplay will be at SPIEL Essen 2026
Meeplay will attend SPIEL Essen 2026 as a professional visitor. We will not have a booth, we are not exhibitors and we are not involved in organizing the event.
We will be using the fair to meet publishers, retailers, associations and other companies in the board game industry, while also getting a closer look at some of the games and trends shaping this year's show.
When we return from Essen, it will be worth coming back to this list: which games surprised us, which new discoveries were not on our radar at all, and which titles changed our minds once we actually saw them on the table.
For now, these are our fifteen to watch.
