Each time a significant awards ceremony approaches, there’s always a demand for the addition fresh award types to recognize overlooked contributions and fill the spirits of enthusiasts who have specialized interests.
A fellow writer has already made supporting a scary games classification. That would be fantastic. Equally deserving are strategy board titles, this being someone's personal cause. However, I must insist if I try to elbow in front just as with other dedicated enthusiasts, I have a cast-iron argument for why my demand remains most pressing above others. Here's the proposal: There should be a category for puzzle games.
Organizing Gaming Categories
Categorizing art by genre defies precise measurement; it’s very subjective, and it will always generate discussions and end in fuzzy definitions. There’s a reason movie academies steer clear of genre categories. Yet it remains an essential concession in the world of interactive entertainment, which are so diverse they barely qualify as a single art form.
For the full spectrum of interactive entertainment excellence to receive acknowledgment, and for games of all stripes to compete fairly, classification by type becomes crucial.
Present Award Structure
Leading game ceremonies offer these classifications covering Action-oriented games, Adventure-action titles, RPG experiences, Fighting, Sim/Strategy, plus athletic and racing experiences. Together, these classifications successfully include numerous genres, and you can find room for most games within them.
Not so for puzzle games. No appropriate category exists to put them. Consider three of recent excellent titles, all very different: structural challenges in a particular game, fast-paced pattern recognition of another game, engaging interpersonal challenges in another game. What category would fit them within current classifications? Simply put, no category fits.
Recognition Challenges
Many instances occur of brilliant puzzle games published annually that have no home during gaming ceremonies, if they accidentally match for categories like Mobile Game, VR/AR Game, or the extremely competitive small studio competitions.
- An iconic brain-teaser wasn’t nominated for anything in 2014
- Another creative title missed out that year
- Popular arranging title got ignored that year
- Limited numbers of puzzle games scraped into niche award types
Importance of Logic Titles
Frequently they represent compact experiences, however the design of the puzzle game is of massive significance. Well-known matching games count as most popular titles worldwide continuing this trend for over a decade.
The iconic tile-matching title rivals famous sandbox experiences competing to become best-selling game of all time; it’s also in the running for top gaming experience. Brain-teasers form essential building blocks within interactive entertainment, and they are in conversation across multiple categories.
Proposal and Rationale
Logic titles wouldn't face this problem. One could readily select five nominees engaging, different, qualified experiences annually without trouble — or rather, with difficulty, given the need to exclude many worthy titles.
To emphasize again, these include experiences lacking appropriate categories in important events. Puzzle game makers are working at the challenging frontier game development, developing some of the purest expressions of the video game form. Similar to film action specialists, they merit acknowledgment. We shouldn't delay decades.
