The German Scholarship for Young Game Designer is intended to provide young talents with insights into different areas of the game scene. This is intended not only to sharpen their view of pure authoring, but also to provide insights into publishing work, the toy trade, and game theory knowledge during the various internships over a total period of four weeks. Finally, the fellows prepare an internship report that is published on the website of Spiel des Jahres e.V. and the Spiele-Autoren-Zunft (SAZ).
The founder of the scholarship was Friedhelm Merz in 1995. After his death, the Spiel des Jahres association continued his idea by providing a grant of currently 3000 euros for the scholarship, which covers travel costs and expenses of the candidates. In 2020, the SAZ has taken over the organization of the scholarship, while the Spiel des Jahres association continues to act as sponsor. The spielbox® s media partner as well as the Saxon Institute Game for the pre-selection of the submissions have been added.
After the pre-selection, an independent jury consisting of two persons appointed by the SAZ and the winner of the previous year will review the prototypes presented by the five candidates from the pre-selection. The winner will be awarded a prize on June 12, 2022.