Whenever a significant awards ceremony approaches, one notices a demand for the addition fresh award types to honor unsung work and fill the spirits of enthusiasts dedicated to specific genres.
Another commentator made the case supporting a scary games classification. It would be amazing. Equally deserving are strategy board titles, which is someone's personal cause. However, I must insist if I try to elbow in front because like all single-minded supporters, I have a cast-iron argument supporting my request remains most pressing above others. Here's the proposal: It's essential to create a category for puzzle games.
Organizing Gaming Categories
Organizing artistic expressions defies precise measurement; opinions vary greatly, and typically start arguments concluding with vague boundaries. This explains why film award organizations avoid this approach. Yet it remains an unavoidable compromise in the world of interactive entertainment, showing incredible range they barely qualify one unified medium.
For the full spectrum of gaming accomplishments to gain proper attention, and for games of all stripes to have a chance for representation, classification by type becomes crucial.
Present Award Structure
Prominent interactive entertainment events offer these classifications covering Action, Action/Adventure, Role-Playing, Combat games, Simulation and strategy titles, and Sports/Racing games. Between them, these award types effectively encompass numerous genres, allowing placement accommodating various experiences.
This doesn't apply to logic-based experiences. There’s simply nowhere to put them. Examine these examples from this year’s best games, all very different: building puzzles from a specific release, fast-paced pattern recognition in a different title, thought-provoking social scenarios of a third title. Which classification works within current classifications? Unfortunately, nowhere.
Acknowledgment Issues
Numerous examples exist of brilliant puzzle games released every year lacking appropriate categories at major award shows, except when they manage to fit for categories like Handheld titles, VR/AR Game, or the intensely contested independent game categories.
- One classic puzzle game received no recognition in any category in 2014
- A different innovative game was excluded that year
- Well-received sorting experience was overlooked in 2021
- Only a few puzzle games managed to sneak into small studio or handheld classifications
Value of Brain-Teasers
Commonly they're compact experiences, but the art behind logic titles carries substantial weight. Well-known matching games stand as most engaged experiences worldwide and have been for an extended period.
The iconic tile-matching title rivals well-known building titles for the title of most purchased experience; it also contends for top gaming experience. Brain-teasers form essential building blocks for gaming as medium, while interacting with diverse game types.
Recommendation and Reasoning
Logic titles wouldn't face this problem. You could fill multiple candidates interesting, varied, worthy titles every year with ease — or rather, with difficulty, because you’d have to leave so many good games out.
Restating the point, these represent titles without proper classification during prominent ceremonies. Logic title developers function at the demanding boundary of video game design, producing among essential manifestations within interactive entertainment. Just like movie stunt professionals, they merit acknowledgment. Let’s not keep them waiting 35 years.
