As any significant honors show nears, there’s always an outcry to include fresh award types to recognize overlooked contributions and fill the passions of enthusiasts with niche passions.
A fellow writer has already made for a horror game category. That would rule. So would strategy board titles, this being a passionate advocate's mission. Yet I need to apologize in advance when I prioritize because like all single-minded supporters, there's a strong justification supporting my request stands as crucial and significant. The demand is this: We need a category for puzzle games.
Organizing Gaming Categories
Categorizing art by genre is not a science; opinions vary greatly, and inevitably spark debates and end in fuzzy definitions. This explains why cinema institutions steer clear of genre categories. But it is a necessary evil for the industry of interactive entertainment, that demonstrate such variety they hardly constitute a single creative category.
For comprehensive acknowledgment of interactive entertainment excellence to receive acknowledgment, while allowing diverse titles to compete fairly, classification by type becomes crucial.
Present Award Structure
Leading game ceremonies offer these award types recognizing Action, Adventure-action titles, RPG experiences, Combat games, Simulation and strategy titles, and Sports/Racing games. Between them, these classifications successfully include numerous genres, making space possible for most games within them.
Different situation exists for brain-teasing titles. No suitable classification appears for their placement. Think about these outstanding current releases, all very different: structural challenges in a particular game, intense tile-matching of another game, and the sweetly sociological logic puzzles in another game. Where could they possibly go between these six categories? Simply put, no category fits.
The Representation Problem
Numerous examples exist of brilliant puzzle games released every year lacking appropriate categories during gaming ceremonies, unless they happen to qualify award groups including Mobile Game, VR/AR Game, or the intensely contested independent game categories.
- One classic puzzle game got overlooked in any category in 2014
- Another creative title was excluded that year
- A beloved organization game got ignored recently
- Only a few logic titles barely qualified for niche award types
Importance of Logic Titles
These are often modest productions, however the design behind logic titles holds tremendous importance. Iconic mobile puzzle games count as most engaged experiences globally and have been for over a decade.
The iconic tile-matching title competes with famous sandbox experiences claiming status as highest-selling title ever; it additionally competes for top gaming experience. Puzzle games are foundational for gaming as medium, and engaging with almost every other genre.
Recommendation and Reasoning
Brain-teasers wouldn't encounter such difficulty. It would be easy to populate a field of five with fascinating, diverse, deserving games each ceremony simply — actually, with challenge, since numerous excellent so many good games out.
Restating the point, these are games lacking appropriate categories in important events. Puzzle game makers operate at the demanding boundary game development, creating some of most fundamental forms of gaming itself. Similar to cinema stunt performers, they warrant appreciation. We shouldn't delay generations.
