Each time a major awards ceremony approaches, you'll find an outcry for the addition additional classifications to acknowledge overlooked contributions and fill the spirits of enthusiasts dedicated to specific genres.
My colleague has already made supporting a scary games classification. That would be fantastic. Equally deserving are tabletop games, which is someone's personal cause. Yet I need to apologize in advance for pushing forward just as with other blinkered fanatics, I have a cast-iron argument supporting my request is the most urgent above others. Here's the proposal: It's essential to create a category for puzzle games.
Organizing Gaming Categories
Classifying creative works is not a science; it remains highly personal, and it will always spark debates and end in fuzzy definitions. It's understandable that movie academies avoid this approach. But it is an essential concession in the world of interactive entertainment, that demonstrate such variety they hardly constitute a single creative category.
For the full spectrum of achievement in video games to receive acknowledgment, and for games of all stripes to have a chance for representation, genre categories are essential.
Present Award Structure
The major gaming awards currently feature classifications covering Action, Adventure-action titles, RPG experiences, Fighting, Sim/Strategy, plus athletic and racing experiences. Together, these award types effectively encompass a lot of ground, and you can find room for most games within them.
Different situation exists for puzzle games. No appropriate category exists to accommodate them. Think about these recent excellent titles, showing diverse approaches: the architectural riddles from a specific release, intense tile-matching from another release, engaging interpersonal challenges of a third title. Which classification works among existing types? Nowhere, that’s where.
Acknowledgment Issues
Many instances occur excellent brain-teasers published annually without proper recognition in entertainment awards, if they accidentally match award groups including Handheld titles, VR/AR Game, and the highly challenging Indie races.
- An iconic brain-teaser got overlooked completely that year
- A different innovative game missed out that year
- A beloved organization game was overlooked that year
- Only a few logic titles barely qualified for small studio or handheld classifications
Value of Brain-Teasers
Frequently they represent modest productions, but the art in brain-teasers holds tremendous importance. Famous handheld logic titles rank among most engaged experiences worldwide and have been for over a decade.
The legendary block-stacking game competes with famous sandbox experiences claiming status as best-selling game of all time; it additionally competes for top gaming experience. Puzzle games are foundational for gaming as medium, and engaging across multiple categories.
The Solution and Justification
Brain-teasers wouldn't encounter such difficulty. You could fill a field of five interesting, varied, worthy titles every year with ease — actually, with challenge, given the need to exclude many worthy titles.
Restating the point, these include experiences without proper classification at major gaming awards. Puzzle game makers are working at the challenging frontier game development, creating some of essential manifestations of gaming itself. Just like movie stunt professionals, they warrant appreciation. We shouldn't delay 35 years.
