Whenever a prominent prize-giving event draws close, there’s always a demand for introducing fresh award types to recognize overlooked contributions and fill the hearts of followers dedicated to specific genres.
My colleague made the case for a horror game category. That would be fantastic. So would tabletop games, representing someone's personal cause. But they will have to forgive me for pushing forward just as with other blinkered fanatics, I have a cast-iron argument supporting my request remains most pressing and important of all. This is the request: There should be a category for puzzle games.
Organizing Gaming Categories
Categorizing art by genre is not a science; it’s very subjective, and typically start arguments and end in fuzzy definitions. This explains why movie academies avoid this approach. But it is an essential concession within the realm of gaming, that demonstrate such variety it's challenging to consider them as a single art form.
For the full spectrum of achievement in video games to receive acknowledgment, and to ensure all game types to compete fairly, classification by type becomes crucial.
Present Award Structure
The major gaming awards offer these genre categories for Action, Action/Adventure, Role-Playing, Combat games, Sim/Strategy, and Sports/Racing games. Collectively, these classifications actually cover many game types, and you can find room for most games within them.
This doesn't apply to logic-based experiences. No appropriate category exists for their placement. Examine these examples from outstanding current releases, showing diverse approaches: building puzzles of one title, the pulse-pounding block-matching in a different title, and the sweetly sociological logic puzzles of a third title. Where could they possibly go between these six categories? Unfortunately, nowhere.
Recognition Challenges
There are dozens outstanding logic titles released every year lacking appropriate categories in entertainment awards, except when they manage to fit for categories like Mobile Game, VR/AR Game, or the extremely competitive small studio competitions.
- A renowned logic title got overlooked for anything during that awards season
- Another imaginative release was excluded in 2019
- A beloved organization game was overlooked recently
- Just some brain-teasers barely qualified for small studio or handheld classifications
Value of Brain-Teasers
Commonly they're modest productions, however the design behind logic titles holds tremendous importance. Iconic mobile puzzle games stand as the most-played games in the world and have been for an extended period.
The iconic tile-matching title competes with well-known building titles competing to become best-selling game of all time; it also contends as greatest title ever. Brain-teasers form essential building blocks for gaming as medium, and engaging with almost every other genre.
The Solution and Justification
Brain-teasers wouldn't encounter this problem. It would be easy to populate multiple candidates with fascinating, diverse, deserving games every year with ease — perhaps, with difficulty, given the need to exclude so many good games out.
To emphasize again, these include experiences lacking appropriate categories during prominent ceremonies. Puzzle game makers operate at the demanding boundary interactive creation, creating some of most fundamental forms of gaming itself. Similar to movie stunt professionals, they deserve recognition. Let’s not keep them waiting decades.
