Whenever a prominent awards ceremony draws close, you'll find a demand to include of new categories to honor unsung work and fill the hearts of fans who have specialized interests.
My colleague previously argued advocating for terror-themed awards. That would be fantastic. The same goes for strategy board titles, representing a passionate advocate's mission. But they will have to forgive me for pushing forward because like all blinkered fanatics, there's a strong justification backing this proposal remains most pressing and important of all. The demand is this: We need a category for puzzle games.
Organizing Gaming Categories
Classifying creative works is not a science; it remains highly personal, and it will always generate discussions resulting in unclear classifications. This explains why movie academies avoid this approach. But it is an unavoidable compromise within the realm of gaming, showing incredible range they barely qualify as a single art form.
For the full spectrum of achievement in video games to receive acknowledgment, and for games of all stripes to receive proper recognition, genre categories are essential.
Existing Game Classification System
The major gaming awards presently include award types recognizing Action-oriented games, Adventure-action titles, Role-Playing, Combat games, Simulation and strategy titles, plus athletic and racing experiences. Together, these six categories successfully include many game types, allowing placement accommodating various experiences.
Different situation exists for puzzle games. There’s simply nowhere for their placement. Consider three of this year’s best games, showing diverse approaches: building puzzles from a specific release, fast-paced pattern recognition from another release, thought-provoking social scenarios in another game. Where could they possibly go among existing types? Nowhere, that’s where.
The Representation Problem
There are dozens outstanding logic titles released every year lacking appropriate categories in entertainment awards, if they accidentally match for categories like Mobile Game, VR/AR Game, or the extremely competitive Indie races.
- A renowned logic title got overlooked for anything in 2014
- Another creative title missed out in 2019
- A beloved organization game was overlooked recently
- Only a few puzzle games scraped into niche award types
Importance of Logic Titles
Commonly they're modest productions, but the art of the puzzle game is of massive significance. Famous handheld logic titles count as the most-played games in the world continuing this trend for over a decade.
The iconic tile-matching title competes with popular creative games claiming status as highest-selling title ever; it also contends for best game of all time. Puzzle games are foundational to the art of video games, while interacting with almost every other genre.
The Solution and Justification
Brain-teasers wouldn't encounter such difficulty. You could fill a field of five with fascinating, diverse, deserving games annually without trouble — or rather, with difficulty, since numerous excellent many worthy titles.
And to reiterate, these include experiences lacking appropriate categories during prominent ceremonies. Brain-teaser creators operate at the hard edge of video game design, creating some of the purest expressions of gaming itself. Comparable to film action specialists, they merit acknowledgment. Don't make them wait decades.
