As any significant honors show approaches, one notices an outcry to include additional classifications to honor unsung work and satisfy the spirits of fans with niche passions.
A fellow writer previously argued for a horror game category. That would be fantastic. So would tabletop games, this being a passionate advocate's mission. However, I must insist if I try to elbow in front since similar to blinkered fanatics, there's a strong justification supporting my request remains most pressing and significant. This is the request: It's essential to create a category for puzzle games.
Categorizing Game Types
Categorizing art by genre isn't exact; opinions vary greatly, and inevitably generate discussions resulting in unclear classifications. This explains why cinema institutions steer clear of genre categories. But it is an essential concession in the world of gaming, which are so diverse it's challenging to consider them one unified medium.
For comprehensive acknowledgment of gaming accomplishments to gain proper attention, and for games of all stripes to receive proper recognition, classification by type becomes crucial.
Current Gaming Award Categories
Leading game ceremonies currently feature award types recognizing Action, Action/Adventure, Role-Playing, Fighting, Sim/Strategy, and Sports/Racing games. Between them, these six categories successfully include a lot of ground, and you can find room accommodating various experiences.
Not so for logic-based experiences. No suitable classification appears to put them. Examine these examples from outstanding current releases, showing diverse approaches: building puzzles of one title, fast-paced pattern recognition in a different title, engaging interpersonal challenges of a third title. What category would fit them between these six categories? Nowhere, that’s where.
Recognition Challenges
There are dozens outstanding logic titles published annually that have no home in entertainment awards, unless they happen to qualify classification types such as Handheld titles, VR/AR Game, or the intensely contested Indie races.
- An iconic brain-teaser received no recognition for anything during that awards season
- A different innovative game was excluded during that ceremony
- Well-received sorting experience got ignored recently
- Only a few brain-teasers managed to sneak into niche award types
Value of Brain-Teasers
Frequently they represent compact experiences, but the art behind logic titles is of massive significance. Iconic mobile puzzle games rank among most engaged experiences globally and have been for over a decade.
The famous puzzle experience competes with popular creative games for the title of best-selling game of all time; it additionally competes for top gaming experience. Brain-teasers form essential building blocks for gaming as medium, and engaging across multiple categories.
The Solution and Justification
Puzzle games wouldn’t have this problem. You could fill multiple candidates interesting, varied, worthy titles every year with ease — perhaps, with difficulty, because you’d have to leave numerous deserving experiences.
Restating the point, these include experiences lacking appropriate categories in important events. Brain-teaser creators function at the hard edge interactive creation, developing some of most fundamental forms of the video game form. Comparable to movie stunt professionals, they deserve recognition. Let’s not keep them waiting generations.
