As any prominent honors show nears, there’s always a demand for the addition fresh award types to acknowledge underappreciated efforts and satisfy the passions of enthusiasts dedicated to specific genres.
My colleague has already made advocating for terror-themed awards. That would be fantastic. So would strategy board titles, representing someone's personal cause. Yet I need to apologize in advance when I prioritize since similar to blinkered fanatics, I possess a compelling case supporting my request is the most urgent and significant. Here's the proposal: There should be a category for puzzle games.
The Genre Classification Challenge
Organizing artistic expressions is not a science; opinions vary greatly, and it will always generate discussions resulting in unclear classifications. It's understandable that film award organizations steer clear of genre categories. Yet it remains a necessary evil in the world of video games, which are so diverse they hardly constitute as a single art form.
For the full spectrum of interactive entertainment excellence to be recognized, and for games of all stripes to compete fairly, classification by type becomes crucial.
Existing Game Classification System
Prominent interactive entertainment events currently feature award types recognizing Action, Adventure-action titles, RPG experiences, Combat games, Simulation and strategy titles, and Sports/Racing games. Collectively, these award types effectively encompass many game types, allowing placement for numerous titles.
Not so for puzzle games. No appropriate category exists to accommodate them. Think about these this year’s best games, each quite distinct: structural challenges in a particular game, the pulse-pounding block-matching from another release, and the sweetly sociological logic puzzles of a third title. What category would fit them within current classifications? Simply put, no category fits.
Acknowledgment Issues
Many instances occur of brilliant puzzle games launched regularly lacking appropriate categories in entertainment awards, except when they manage to fit award groups including Handheld titles, VR/AR Game, or the intensely contested small studio competitions.
- A renowned logic title got overlooked for anything during that awards season
- A different innovative game received no nominations during that ceremony
- Well-received sorting experience was overlooked recently
- Just some logic titles scraped into independent or mobile categories
Value of Brain-Teasers
Commonly they're small games, however the design in brain-teasers holds tremendous importance. Famous handheld logic titles count as most popular titles in the world maintaining this status for many years.
The iconic tile-matching title competes with well-known building titles competing to become most purchased experience; it also contends for best game of all time. Puzzle games are foundational for gaming as medium, and they are in conversation with diverse game types.
Recommendation and Reasoning
Logic titles wouldn't face this problem. You could fill multiple candidates engaging, different, qualified experiences every year with ease — or rather, with difficulty, given the need to exclude many worthy titles.
To emphasize again, these represent titles lacking appropriate categories during prominent ceremonies. Brain-teaser creators operate at the demanding boundary game development, developing some of most fundamental forms of gaming itself. Just like cinema stunt performers, they merit acknowledgment. Don't make them wait 35 years.
