Each time a major honors show approaches, you'll find a clamor for introducing fresh award types to acknowledge unsung work and satisfy the hearts of fans who have specialized interests.
Another commentator made the case for a horror game category. It would be amazing. The same goes for tabletop games, which is a passionate advocate's mission. But they will have to forgive me for pushing forward just as with other single-minded supporters, there's a strong justification for why my demand is the most urgent and significant. The demand is this: We need a category for puzzle games.
The Genre Classification Challenge
Categorizing art by genre isn't exact; opinions vary greatly, and typically generate discussions and end in fuzzy definitions. This explains why film award organizations avoid this approach. However, it represents an unavoidable compromise within the realm of gaming, that demonstrate such variety they hardly constitute as a single art form.
To recognize the complete range of interactive entertainment excellence to receive acknowledgment, and for games of all stripes to receive proper recognition, genre categories are essential.
Existing Game Classification System
The major gaming awards offer these genre categories for Action-oriented games, Adventure-action titles, RPG experiences, Fighting, Sim/Strategy, plus athletic and racing experiences. Together, these six categories successfully include a lot of ground, and you can find room accommodating various experiences.
This doesn't apply to brain-teasing titles. There’s simply nowhere to put them. Think about these recent excellent titles, showing diverse approaches: building puzzles from a specific release, the pulse-pounding block-matching of another game, thought-provoking social scenarios in another game. What category would fit them among existing types? Nowhere, that’s where.
Recognition Challenges
Many instances occur outstanding logic titles released every year without proper recognition in entertainment awards, except when they manage to fit for categories like Handheld titles, VR/AR Game, or the extremely competitive Indie races.
- An iconic brain-teaser received no recognition in any category in 2014
- Another imaginative release was excluded that year
- Well-received sorting experience received no acknowledgment recently
- Just some brain-teasers managed to sneak into niche award types
Significance of Puzzle Games
Frequently they represent compact experiences, yet the craft of the puzzle game carries substantial weight. Iconic mobile puzzle games stand as most engaged experiences worldwide maintaining this status for many years.
The iconic tile-matching title competes with famous sandbox experiences for the title of best-selling game of all time; it’s also in the running for best game of all time. Puzzle games are foundational for gaming as medium, and engaging with almost every other genre.
Proposal and Rationale
Logic titles wouldn't face this problem. One could readily select a field of five with fascinating, diverse, deserving games annually without trouble — actually, with challenge, since numerous excellent so many good games out.
And to reiterate, these include experiences lacking appropriate categories at major gaming awards. Brain-teaser creators operate at the hard edge game development, producing among the purest expressions of the video game form. Just like film action specialists, they merit acknowledgment. Don't make them wait 35 years.
