As any significant prize-giving event nears, you'll find an outcry to include fresh award types to recognize unsung work and satisfy the hearts of followers who have specialized interests.
A fellow writer made the case advocating for terror-themed awards. That would rule. The same goes for tabletop games, this being someone's personal cause. But they will have to forgive me when I prioritize since similar to blinkered fanatics, I have a cast-iron argument supporting my request stands as crucial above others. Here's the proposal: We need a category for puzzle games.
Categorizing Game Types
Classifying creative works is not a science; opinions vary greatly, and inevitably generate discussions concluding with vague boundaries. It's understandable that film award organizations steer clear of genre categories. But it is an unavoidable compromise within the realm of gaming, that demonstrate such variety they hardly constitute one unified medium.
For comprehensive acknowledgment of gaming accomplishments to be recognized, and for games of all stripes to receive proper recognition, specific award classifications remain vital.
Current Gaming Award Categories
Prominent interactive entertainment events presently include award types recognizing Action-oriented games, Action/Adventure, Role-Playing, Fighting, Sim/Strategy, and Sports/Racing games. Between them, these six categories successfully include numerous genres, and you can find room for most games within them.
Not so for puzzle games. There’s simply nowhere for their placement. Consider three of this year’s best games, all very different: building puzzles from a specific release, intense tile-matching in a different title, 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
There are dozens excellent brain-teasers published annually without proper recognition at major award shows, if they accidentally match award groups including Mobile Game, VR/AR Game, or the intensely contested small studio competitions.
- One classic puzzle game received no recognition for anything in 2014
- A different innovative game missed out in 2019
- Well-received sorting experience got ignored in 2021
- Only a few puzzle games barely qualified for independent or mobile categories
Significance of Puzzle Games
Frequently they represent compact experiences, yet the craft in brain-teasers carries substantial weight. Famous handheld logic titles stand as most popular titles in the world maintaining this status for many years.
The famous puzzle experience challenges popular creative games for the title of best-selling game of all time; it’s also in the running for best game of all time. Brain-teasers form essential building blocks to the art of video games, and engaging across multiple categories.
The Solution and Justification
Brain-teasers wouldn't encounter such difficulty. It would be easy to populate multiple candidates with fascinating, diverse, deserving games each ceremony simply — perhaps, with difficulty, because you’d have to leave many worthy titles.
And to reiterate, these represent titles lacking appropriate categories at major gaming awards. Logic title developers operate at the challenging frontier of video game design, producing among essential manifestations of gaming itself. Similar to cinema stunt performers, they warrant appreciation. Don't make them wait generations.
