Whenever a significant honors show draws close, one notices a demand to include of new categories to acknowledge underappreciated efforts and delight the passions of enthusiasts dedicated to specific genres.
My colleague previously argued supporting a scary games classification. It would be amazing. The same goes for tabletop games, which is someone's personal cause. However, I must insist if I try to elbow in front because like all blinkered fanatics, I have a cast-iron argument for why my demand stands as crucial above others. The demand is this: There should be an award type for logic-based games.
The Genre Classification Challenge
Categorizing art by genre defies precise measurement; opinions vary greatly, and inevitably spark debates concluding with vague boundaries. This explains why cinema institutions don’t do it. Yet it remains an unavoidable compromise for the industry of gaming, that demonstrate such variety they hardly constitute a single creative category.
For comprehensive acknowledgment of achievement in video games to gain proper attention, and for games of all stripes to have a chance for representation, genre categories are essential.
Current Gaming Award Categories
The major gaming awards offer these classifications covering Action-oriented games, Action/Adventure, Role-Playing, Combat games, Sim/Strategy, plus athletic and racing experiences. Between them, these award types actually cover many game types, and you can find room for numerous titles.
This doesn't apply to puzzle games. There’s simply nowhere to accommodate them. Consider three of outstanding current releases, all very different: structural challenges in a particular game, intense tile-matching in a different title, and the sweetly sociological logic puzzles from additional release. Which classification works between these six categories? Nowhere, that’s where.
The Representation Problem
Many instances occur excellent brain-teasers launched regularly lacking appropriate categories during gaming ceremonies, unless they happen to qualify award groups including Handheld titles, VR/AR Game, or the intensely contested small studio competitions.
- An iconic brain-teaser received no recognition in any category during that awards season
- Another creative title received no nominations during that ceremony
- Well-received sorting experience was overlooked in 2021
- Limited numbers of logic titles barely qualified for small studio or handheld classifications
Significance of Puzzle Games
These are often compact experiences, however the design behind logic titles holds tremendous importance. Iconic mobile puzzle games count as most engaged experiences worldwide continuing this trend for an extended period.
The legendary block-stacking game competes with famous sandbox experiences for the title of highest-selling title ever; it’s also in the running for top gaming experience. Puzzle games are foundational to the art of video games, 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 — actually, with challenge, because you’d have to leave numerous deserving experiences.
Restating the point, these are games that otherwise have no home during prominent ceremonies. Puzzle game makers are working at the challenging frontier of video game design, developing some of essential manifestations of the video game form. Similar to cinema stunt performers, they merit acknowledgment. We shouldn't delay decades.
