As any prominent prize-giving event approaches, there’s always an outcry for the addition fresh award types to recognize unsung work and fill the hearts of fans who have specialized interests.
My colleague has already made supporting a scary games classification. That would rule. Equally deserving are board games, this being someone's personal cause. Yet I need to apologize in advance when I prioritize just as with other single-minded supporters, I possess a compelling case for why my demand is the most urgent and important of all. Here's the proposal: There should be a category for puzzle games.
The Genre Classification Challenge
Organizing artistic expressions is not a science; it remains highly personal, and typically start arguments and end in fuzzy definitions. There’s a reason film award organizations steer clear of genre categories. Yet it remains an unavoidable compromise for the industry of gaming, which are so diverse they barely qualify as a single art form.
For the full spectrum of achievement in video games to gain proper attention, and to ensure all game types to compete fairly, specific award classifications remain vital.
Current Gaming Award Categories
The major gaming awards presently include classifications covering Action-oriented games, Action/Adventure, Role-Playing, Combat games, Sim/Strategy, plus athletic and racing experiences. Collectively, these classifications effectively encompass a lot of ground, and you can find room for most games within them.
This doesn't apply to puzzle games. No suitable classification appears for their placement. Consider three of recent excellent titles, all very different: structural challenges from a specific release, the pulse-pounding block-matching in a different title, and the sweetly sociological logic puzzles of a third title. Where could they possibly go among existing types? Simply put, no category fits.
Recognition Challenges
There are dozens excellent brain-teasers launched regularly that have no home in entertainment awards, except when they manage to fit award groups including Handheld titles, VR/AR Game, or the intensely contested small studio competitions.
- An iconic brain-teaser got overlooked for anything in 2014
- Another creative title missed out in 2019
- A beloved organization game was overlooked recently
- Only a few logic titles barely qualified for niche award types
Importance of Logic Titles
These are often small games, but the art of the puzzle game is of massive significance. Famous handheld logic titles count as the most-played games in the world and have been for many years.
The iconic tile-matching title competes with well-known building titles claiming status as most purchased experience; it also contends as greatest title ever. Puzzle games are foundational for gaming as medium, while interacting across multiple categories.
The Solution and Justification
Logic titles wouldn't face that issue. One could readily select five nominees engaging, different, qualified experiences annually without trouble — actually, with challenge, because you’d have to leave so many good games out.
And to reiterate, these include experiences that otherwise have no home at major gaming awards. Puzzle game makers operate at the demanding boundary game development, developing some of the purest expressions within interactive entertainment. Just like movie stunt professionals, they deserve recognition. Let’s not keep them waiting 35 years.
