As any significant awards ceremony nears, there’s always a demand to include fresh award types to acknowledge unsung work and delight the passions of enthusiasts dedicated to specific genres.
Another commentator previously argued supporting a scary games classification. It would be amazing. Equally deserving are tabletop games, this being a dedicated supporter's campaign. But they will have to forgive me if I try to elbow in front since similar to single-minded supporters, there's a strong justification backing this proposal remains most pressing above others. Here's the proposal: We need a classification for brain-teasing titles.
Organizing Gaming Categories
Categorizing art by genre is not a science; opinions vary greatly, and inevitably start arguments and end in fuzzy definitions. It's understandable that cinema institutions don’t do it. However, it represents an unavoidable compromise within the realm of gaming, which are so diverse they hardly constitute a single creative category.
To recognize the complete range of interactive entertainment excellence to be recognized, and to ensure all game types to have a chance for representation, classification by type becomes crucial.
Current Gaming Award Categories
Leading game ceremonies presently include award types recognizing Action-oriented games, Adventure-action titles, Role-Playing, Combat games, Sim/Strategy, plus athletic and racing experiences. Between them, these six categories effectively encompass a lot of ground, allowing placement for most games within them.
Different situation exists for logic-based experiences. No appropriate category exists for their placement. Examine these examples from this year’s best games, each quite distinct: structural challenges from a specific release, fast-paced pattern recognition in a different title, and the sweetly sociological logic puzzles from additional release. Which classification works within current classifications? Simply put, no category fits.
Recognition Challenges
Numerous examples exist of brilliant puzzle games published annually lacking appropriate categories in entertainment awards, except when they manage to fit award groups including Mobile Game, Virtual reality experiences, or the extremely competitive small studio competitions.
- One classic puzzle game got overlooked completely during that awards season
- Another imaginative release missed out in 2019
- A beloved organization game received no acknowledgment recently
- Limited numbers of logic titles managed to sneak into independent or mobile categories
Significance of Puzzle Games
These are often modest productions, but the art behind logic titles is of massive significance. Iconic mobile puzzle games rank among most popular titles worldwide maintaining this status for over a decade.
The legendary block-stacking game rivals famous sandbox experiences for the title of most purchased experience; it also contends for best game of all time. Logic titles represent cornerstones for gaming as medium, and engaging with diverse game types.
Proposal and Rationale
Puzzle games wouldn’t have such difficulty. It would be easy to populate multiple candidates with fascinating, diverse, deserving games every year with ease — or rather, with difficulty, because you’d have to leave so many good games out.
And to reiterate, these include experiences without proper classification at major gaming awards. Puzzle game makers operate at the hard edge interactive creation, producing among most fundamental forms of gaming itself. Similar to movie stunt professionals, they deserve recognition. We shouldn't delay 35 years.
