Each time a major honors show draws close, there’s always an outcry to include additional classifications to honor overlooked contributions and delight the hearts of fans dedicated to specific genres.
Another commentator has already made supporting a scary games classification. It would be amazing. The same goes for board games, representing a passionate advocate's mission. Yet I need to apologize in advance when I prioritize just as with other dedicated enthusiasts, I possess a compelling case supporting my request remains most pressing and significant. Here's the proposal: We need a category for puzzle games.
Categorizing Game Types
Categorizing art by genre defies precise measurement; it’s very subjective, and inevitably start arguments concluding with vague boundaries. This explains why cinema institutions don’t do it. But it is a necessary evil in the world of video games, which are so diverse they hardly constitute one unified medium.
To recognize the complete range of achievement in video games to gain proper attention, and to ensure all game types to have a chance for representation, genre categories are essential.
Current Gaming Award Categories
Prominent interactive entertainment events offer these genre categories for Action-oriented games, Action/Adventure, RPG experiences, Fighting, Simulation and strategy titles, plus athletic and racing experiences. Together, these six categories effectively encompass numerous genres, and you can find room for most games within them.
This doesn't apply to brain-teasing titles. No appropriate category exists to accommodate them. Examine these examples from recent excellent titles, all very different: building puzzles of one title, the pulse-pounding block-matching of another game, thought-provoking social scenarios from additional release. Which classification works between these six categories? Unfortunately, nowhere.
Recognition Challenges
There are dozens excellent brain-teasers published annually without proper recognition during gaming ceremonies, if they accidentally match award groups including Mobile Game, VR/AR Game, or the extremely competitive small studio competitions.
- A renowned logic title got overlooked completely in 2014
- Another imaginative release was excluded in 2019
- A beloved organization game received no acknowledgment recently
- Just some puzzle games barely qualified for small studio or handheld classifications
Importance of Logic Titles
Frequently they represent compact experiences, but the art behind logic titles carries substantial weight. Famous handheld logic titles count as the most-played games worldwide maintaining this status for many years.
The iconic tile-matching title challenges famous sandbox experiences competing to become highest-selling title ever; it additionally competes for best game of all time. Puzzle games are foundational within interactive entertainment, and they are in conversation across multiple categories.
Recommendation and Reasoning
Brain-teasers wouldn't encounter that issue. One could readily select multiple candidates engaging, different, qualified experiences every year with ease — perhaps, with difficulty, given the need to exclude numerous deserving experiences.
And to reiterate, these include experiences lacking appropriate categories at major gaming awards. Logic title developers operate at the challenging frontier of video game design, creating some of the purest expressions of the video game form. Similar to cinema stunt performers, they merit acknowledgment. Don't make them wait decades.
