Each time a major awards ceremony draws close, one notices a clamor for introducing additional classifications to honor underappreciated efforts and satisfy the spirits of followers dedicated to specific genres.
My colleague made the case for a horror game category. It would be amazing. The same goes for board games, which is someone's personal cause. Yet I need to apologize in advance when I prioritize because like all dedicated enthusiasts, there's a strong justification supporting my request remains most pressing and important of all. This is the request: It's essential to create an award type for logic-based games.
Organizing Gaming Categories
Organizing artistic expressions isn't exact; opinions vary greatly, and inevitably start arguments resulting in unclear classifications. There’s a reason film award organizations don’t do it. However, it represents an unavoidable compromise for the industry of interactive entertainment, showing incredible range they hardly constitute one unified medium.
For the full spectrum of achievement in video games to gain proper attention, and for games of all stripes to have a chance for representation, classification by type becomes crucial.
Existing Game Classification System
Leading game ceremonies presently include award types recognizing Action, Adventure-action titles, Role-Playing, Combat games, Simulation and strategy titles, plus athletic and racing experiences. Between them, these classifications effectively encompass a lot of ground, and you can find room for numerous titles.
Different situation exists for puzzle games. There’s simply nowhere to put them. Think about these this year’s best games, all very different: the architectural riddles from a specific release, the pulse-pounding block-matching from another release, thought-provoking social scenarios from additional release. Where could they possibly go within current classifications? Simply put, no category fits.
The Representation Problem
Many instances occur outstanding logic titles published annually lacking appropriate categories during gaming ceremonies, unless they happen to qualify for categories like Mobile Game, VR/AR Game, and the highly challenging independent game categories.
- An iconic brain-teaser wasn’t nominated for anything in 2014
- A different innovative game received no nominations during that ceremony
- A beloved organization game got ignored in 2021
- Limited numbers of brain-teasers barely qualified for small studio or handheld classifications
Significance of Puzzle Games
These are often modest productions, yet the craft behind logic titles carries substantial weight. Famous handheld logic titles stand as the most-played games globally continuing this trend for an extended period.
The famous puzzle experience challenges well-known building titles for the title of highest-selling title ever; it’s also in the running for top gaming experience. Puzzle games are foundational to the art of video games, while interacting across multiple categories.
Recommendation and Reasoning
Brain-teasers wouldn't encounter this problem. One could readily select multiple candidates interesting, varied, worthy titles every year with ease — actually, with challenge, given the need to exclude numerous deserving experiences.
Restating the point, these represent titles lacking appropriate categories at major gaming awards. Puzzle game makers function at the hard edge game development, developing some of most fundamental forms within interactive entertainment. Just like film action specialists, they deserve recognition. We shouldn't delay 35 years.
