Each time a major awards ceremony draws close, you'll find a clamor for introducing of new categories to acknowledge unsung work and delight the hearts of fans with niche passions.
My colleague has already made advocating for terror-themed awards. It would be amazing. The same goes for strategy board titles, representing a passionate advocate's mission. However, I must insist if I try to elbow in front just as with other blinkered fanatics, I have a cast-iron argument backing this proposal remains most pressing above others. This is the request: We need a category for puzzle games.
Categorizing Game Types
Categorizing art by genre defies precise measurement; it remains highly personal, and typically spark debates and end in fuzzy definitions. There’s a reason movie academies don’t do it. Yet it remains an essential concession for the industry of gaming, that demonstrate such variety it's challenging to consider them as a single art form.
For comprehensive acknowledgment of gaming accomplishments to receive acknowledgment, and for games of all stripes to receive proper recognition, specific award classifications remain vital.
Existing Game Classification System
The major gaming awards currently feature classifications covering Action, Action/Adventure, RPG experiences, Combat games, Sim/Strategy, plus athletic and racing experiences. Together, these award types actually cover many game types, and you can find room for numerous titles.
This doesn't apply to logic-based experiences. No appropriate category exists for their placement. Examine these examples from recent excellent titles, each quite distinct: structural challenges in a particular game, fast-paced pattern recognition from another release, engaging interpersonal challenges in another game. Where could they possibly go between these six categories? Simply put, no category fits.
Recognition Challenges
There are dozens of brilliant puzzle games published annually without proper recognition during gaming ceremonies, except when they manage to fit for categories like Mobile Game, VR/AR Game, or the extremely competitive independent game categories.
- A renowned logic title got overlooked in any category during that awards season
- Another imaginative release was excluded in 2019
- Well-received sorting experience was overlooked that year
- Just some brain-teasers scraped into niche award types
Importance of Logic Titles
Commonly they're compact experiences, but the art of the puzzle game holds tremendous importance. Famous handheld logic titles stand as most engaged experiences globally continuing this trend for an extended period.
The legendary block-stacking game challenges popular creative games competing to become best-selling game of all time; it additionally competes for best game of all time. Brain-teasers form essential building blocks to the art of video games, while interacting across multiple categories.
The Solution and Justification
Brain-teasers wouldn't encounter that issue. It would be easy to populate a field of five interesting, varied, worthy titles every year with ease — actually, with challenge, because you’d have to leave numerous deserving experiences.
And to reiterate, these are games without proper classification at major gaming awards. Brain-teaser creators are working at the hard edge game development, producing among the purest expressions within interactive entertainment. Similar to film action specialists, they warrant appreciation. Don't make them wait generations.
