Each time a significant awards ceremony draws close, you'll find a demand for the addition of new categories to recognize underappreciated efforts and fill the spirits of enthusiasts dedicated to specific genres.
A fellow writer has already made supporting a scary games classification. That would rule. Equally deserving are tabletop games, which is a dedicated supporter's campaign. Yet I need to apologize in advance for pushing forward just as with other dedicated enthusiasts, there's a strong justification for why my demand remains most pressing and important of all. This is the request: We need a category for puzzle games.
Categorizing Game Types
Categorizing art by genre is not a science; it’s very subjective, and typically spark debates concluding with vague boundaries. It's understandable that film award organizations don’t do it. But it is an essential concession for the industry of video games, showing incredible range they hardly constitute as a single art form.
For comprehensive acknowledgment of interactive entertainment excellence to gain proper attention, and for games of all stripes to have a chance for representation, genre categories are essential.
Present Award Structure
The major gaming awards currently feature award types recognizing Action-oriented games, Action/Adventure, Role-Playing, Combat games, Simulation and strategy titles, plus athletic and racing experiences. Together, these six categories actually cover a lot of ground, making space possible for most games within them.
This doesn't apply to brain-teasing titles. No appropriate category exists to accommodate them. Examine these examples from this year’s best games, each quite distinct: building puzzles of one title, the pulse-pounding block-matching from another release, engaging interpersonal challenges of a third title. Which classification works between these six categories? Nowhere, that’s where.
Acknowledgment Issues
Many instances occur outstanding logic titles launched regularly that have no home at major award shows, except when they manage to fit classification types such as Mobile Game, VR/AR Game, or the extremely competitive Indie races.
- One classic puzzle game wasn’t nominated for anything during that awards season
- Another creative title received no nominations that year
- Well-received sorting experience got ignored recently
- Only a few brain-teasers barely qualified for niche award types
Value of Brain-Teasers
Frequently they represent compact experiences, however the design in brain-teasers carries substantial weight. Iconic mobile puzzle games stand as most popular titles worldwide continuing this trend for over a decade.
The iconic tile-matching title challenges well-known building titles competing to become highest-selling title ever; it’s also in the running as greatest title ever. Logic titles represent cornerstones within interactive entertainment, and engaging across multiple categories.
Recommendation and Reasoning
Brain-teasers wouldn't encounter such difficulty. You could fill five nominees with fascinating, diverse, deserving games each ceremony simply — or rather, with difficulty, given the need to exclude so many good games out.
To emphasize again, these are games that otherwise have no home in important events. Logic title developers operate at the challenging frontier of video game design, producing among the purest expressions within interactive entertainment. Just like cinema stunt performers, they deserve recognition. Don't make them wait generations.
