Whenever a significant awards ceremony approaches, one notices a clamor to include additional classifications to acknowledge unsung work and delight the hearts of fans dedicated to specific genres.
Another commentator has already made supporting a scary games classification. It would be amazing. So would board games, representing someone's personal cause. Yet I need to apologize in advance when I prioritize because like all single-minded supporters, I have a cast-iron argument supporting my request is the most urgent above others. This is the request: There should be a category for puzzle games.
The Genre Classification Challenge
Classifying creative works defies precise measurement; it remains highly personal, and typically start arguments resulting in unclear classifications. This explains why movie academies don’t do it. But it is an unavoidable compromise in the world of interactive entertainment, showing incredible range they barely qualify as a single art form.
For the full spectrum of interactive entertainment excellence to receive acknowledgment, and to ensure all game types to have a chance for representation, classification by type becomes crucial.
Current Gaming Award Categories
The major gaming awards offer these genre categories for Action-oriented games, Adventure-action titles, RPG experiences, Combat games, Sim/Strategy, plus athletic and racing experiences. Together, these award types actually cover a lot of ground, making space possible accommodating various experiences.
Not so for puzzle games. There’s simply nowhere to put them. Examine these examples from outstanding current releases, all very different: building puzzles in a particular game, the pulse-pounding block-matching from another release, engaging interpersonal challenges of a third title. What category would fit them among existing types? Unfortunately, nowhere.
Recognition Challenges
There are dozens outstanding logic titles launched regularly lacking appropriate categories during gaming ceremonies, unless they happen to qualify classification types such as Handheld titles, Virtual reality experiences, and the highly challenging independent game categories.
- An iconic brain-teaser received no recognition in any category that year
- Another creative title received no nominations in 2019
- Well-received sorting experience received no acknowledgment that year
- Only a few puzzle games scraped into small studio or handheld classifications
Value of Brain-Teasers
Commonly they're modest productions, yet the craft in brain-teasers carries substantial weight. Well-known matching games rank among most engaged experiences in the world continuing this trend for over a decade.
The iconic tile-matching title competes with famous sandbox experiences competing to become 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
Brain-teasers wouldn't encounter that issue. One could readily select multiple candidates with fascinating, diverse, deserving games each ceremony simply — perhaps, with difficulty, given the need to exclude numerous deserving experiences.
And to reiterate, these include experiences lacking appropriate categories during prominent ceremonies. Logic title developers function at the demanding boundary of video game design, developing some of most fundamental forms of the video game form. Just like movie stunt professionals, they merit acknowledgment. Let’s not keep them waiting generations.
