The National Toy Award honors a board recreation that no member of the jury has seen or performed | Culture | EUROtoday

“How to judge a book without reading it”; “It’s not a toy prize, it’s an writing contest”; “A missed opportunity”… This is how some specialists, associations and publishers assess what occurred with the 2025 National Toy Award, organized by the Ministry of Youth and Children and endowed with 30,000 euros for the winner. Although participation was open, solely seven functions have been submitted, which have been judged solely based mostly on a report despatched by the candidates, as defined by the group in its response to the allegations of one of many contributors, to which EL PAÍS has had entry. The jury needed to perform their analysis with out touching or taking part in with the video games and toys they evaluated.

On December 30, it was revealed within the BOE that the sport Dragons trapped on the island, from the GEU publishing home and created by Noelia García, Irene Hervías, Flora María Nieto and Sofía Busnadiego, was the winner of the National Toy Award, price 30,000 euros. Raúl López, CEO of Átomo Games, was one of many few who already knew about this consequence: his writer had despatched one other of the seven nominations for the award, the sport The competition of letters (created by Juan Carlos Ruiz and Juan José Izquierdo), and on November 26 they have been knowledgeable of the jury’s determination in case they wished to current allegations. López did it: “It seemed strange to us that there were so few candidates and that we didn’t know the winning game,” he says by telephone. “As we had come second in the jury’s scores and very close to first, we decided to argue to see if we could scratch any more points.”

One of the features that López defended in his argument is the “need for real verifiability of the product”: though the foundations of this National Award say that one of many standards to be evaluated is the “quality of the toy” and that the contributors should embody within the report introduced “the materials that have been used in its manufacture, packaging or packaging”, they weren’t requested to incorporate the toy to confirm it. “You can’t give that piece of prize based on what a document and four photos say, it’s crazy,” López defends.

The General Directorate of Children’s and Adolescents’ Rights, of the Ministry of Youth and Children, despatched a response to Átomo Games’ allegations, during which the group acknowledges that “no applicant has been required to physically send the toy.” Also that the evaluations have been “based on the documentation sent by the applicants.”

“We participate in many toy awards, and they are nothing like this one.” [Premio Nacional]”, says César Bernabéu, commercial director of Muñecas Berjuan, who also sent a nomination for the award: the Glutton Baby. “In some competitions, corresponding to that of the Spanish Association of Toy Manufacturers, it isn’t that you need to ship a toy, it’s that you need to ship a batch in order that the complete jury can do assessments,” he says. “I can’t perceive {that a} National Award makes the evaluations with out the toy in entrance of it.” Alejandro Roldán, co-founder of Badan Studios, another of the candidates for the award with your board game Monkey King (designed by Aída Caba and Roldán himself), agrees with Bernabéu: “It is very strange to evaluate a game if you don’t have it in front of you,” he says. EL PAÍS has also contacted GEU, the publisher of the board game that won this National Award, which has declined to comment.

“Fundamental” requirement in other National Awards

Sources from the Ministry of Youth and Children affirm that the complete process has been “rigorous and transparent” and that, till the jury’s ruling, there have been “no complaints.” “The assessment process has been similar to what was planned in previous editions of the National Award for the Promotion of Creativity in Toys. [convocado por el ministerio de Cultura en 2022 y 2023]where no copy of the toys presented was requested,” they allege. “There are other awards that follow the same assessment criteria, such as the National Fashion Design Award, for which the physical presentation of the ready-made garments is not foreseen.” However, these awards do not reward specific works: the National Award for the Promotion of Creativity in Toys awarded Josep María Joan Rosa (2022), director of the Museu del Joguet de Catalunya, and the toy company Paola Reina (2023). The National Fashion Design Award rewards designers, such as Juana Martín (2025) or Palomo Spain (2024).

In other national awards, such as Narrative or Comic, it is the jury that proposes the nominations, and the organization usually sends copies of the works to the jury members. “In the National Comic Award, at least in the edition in which I was a jury, they sent us all the works and we read them, it seems fundamental to me,” says comedian e book creator and illustrator Sara Jotabé, who, along with being a jury within the 2025 National Comic Award, divulges about board video games in this system. Territory 9from Radio 3. “I think it’s great news that a National Award is given to toys or board games, but I think it should be basic to play and try them.”

Mónica Rodríguez, National Prize for Children and Youth Literature 2024 and jury for the following version, additionally claims to have learn all of the candidate works, that the remainder of the jury had completed the identical and the deliberation “was a serious and contentious meeting.” She additionally claims that she was referred to as to be a choose for the National Toy Award: “I rejected it because I don’t feel qualified to value it properly.”

“How to judge a book without reading it”

The National Toy Award has triggered associations, editors and specialists to indicate their anger at how the evaluations have been carried out. “We have no reason to celebrate,” says the affiliation of Ludo board recreation creators in an announcement. “We regret this lost opportunity and urge the Ministry of Youth and Children to take the necessary steps to correct this situation in future editions.”

“The comparison with other areas is clear: to evaluate a movie you have to see it, to evaluate a book you have to read it… It should be obvious,” says Jesús Torres, organizer of the Córdoba International Board Games Festival and founding father of the Jugamos Tod@s affiliation. “To think that games can be looked at over and over is to belittle what a game is, to undervalue the products and to despise the fact of playing as an expression of cultural leisure.” Torres was the primary to denounce what occurred to the National Toy Award on his affiliation’s web site. He additionally criticizes that the reviews used to guage the video games are written by the events themselves: “Not even a report prepared by an expert outside the candidacy has been evaluated,” he explains. “With the current bases, the National Toy Award has been an writing contest.”

Inma Marín, president of the Institute of Play, shares Torres’ opinion: “I find it amazing, I have been a jury in many contests and the first thing you have to do with the candidate toys is open them, look at them, touch them, turn them over…”, she says. “Otherwise, it’s like judging a book without reading it.” Maite Francés, advertising director of the Spanish Association of Toy Manufacturers (AEFJ), which has been preventing for greater than a decade for the toy to grow to be a great of cultural curiosity, assures that her affiliation discovered “through the press, and late” concerning the existence of this award. Youth Sources affirm that the ministry “positively values ​​the considerations and contributions that entities in the sector make for future editions.”