As any prominent awards ceremony approaches, you'll find an outcry for the addition fresh award types to recognize unsung work and delight the passions of enthusiasts who have specialized interests.
My colleague made the case advocating for terror-themed awards. It would be amazing. So would board games, this being a passionate advocate's mission. However, I must insist for pushing forward because like all blinkered fanatics, I have a cast-iron argument supporting my request remains most pressing and important of all. The demand is this: We need a category for puzzle games.
Categorizing Game Types
Classifying creative works defies precise measurement; it’s very subjective, and inevitably spark debates resulting in unclear classifications. There’s a reason cinema institutions avoid this approach. But it is an unavoidable compromise in the world of video games, showing incredible range it's challenging to consider them one unified medium.
For comprehensive acknowledgment of interactive entertainment excellence to receive acknowledgment, and to ensure all game types to receive proper recognition, classification by type becomes crucial.
Current Gaming Award Categories
Prominent interactive entertainment events presently include genre categories for Action-oriented games, Action/Adventure, RPG experiences, Fighting, Sim/Strategy, and Sports/Racing games. Together, these award types successfully include many game types, allowing placement accommodating various experiences.
Different situation exists for logic-based experiences. No appropriate category exists to put them. Examine these examples from this year’s best games, each quite distinct: structural challenges in a particular game, fast-paced pattern recognition in a different title, thought-provoking social scenarios in another game. What category would fit them between these six categories? Simply put, no category fits.
Recognition Challenges
There are dozens of brilliant puzzle games published annually without proper recognition in entertainment awards, except when they manage to fit for categories like Handheld titles, VR/AR Game, or the extremely competitive Indie races.
- A renowned logic title got overlooked in any category during that awards season
- Another creative title was excluded during that ceremony
- Popular arranging title was overlooked in 2021
- Only a few brain-teasers barely qualified for small studio or handheld classifications
Value of Brain-Teasers
Frequently they represent modest productions, yet the craft of the puzzle game carries substantial weight. Well-known matching games count as most engaged experiences in the world and have been for many years.
The iconic tile-matching title rivals popular creative games competing to become most purchased experience; it also contends as greatest title ever. Puzzle games are foundational to the art of video games, and they are in conversation with diverse game types.
The Solution and Justification
Brain-teasers wouldn't encounter that issue. One could readily select five nominees interesting, varied, worthy titles every year with ease — or rather, with difficulty, given the need to exclude numerous deserving experiences.
To emphasize again, these are games lacking appropriate categories at major gaming awards. Logic title developers operate at the demanding boundary interactive creation, producing among essential manifestations of the video game form. Similar to film action specialists, they deserve recognition. Don't make them wait decades.
