Each time a prominent awards ceremony draws close, one notices an outcry to include of new categories to honor underappreciated efforts and delight the passions of enthusiasts with niche passions.
My colleague has already made supporting a scary games classification. That would be fantastic. Equally deserving are tabletop games, which is a dedicated supporter's campaign. Yet I need to apologize in advance for pushing forward just as with other blinkered fanatics, I have a cast-iron argument for why my demand remains most pressing and important of all. The demand is this: It's essential to create a category for puzzle games.
Categorizing Game Types
Classifying creative works is not a science; it remains highly personal, and typically generate discussions concluding with vague boundaries. It's understandable that film award organizations steer clear of genre categories. Yet it remains an essential concession for the industry of gaming, showing incredible range they hardly constitute one unified medium.
To recognize the complete range of achievement in video games to be recognized, and for games of all stripes to receive proper recognition, genre categories are essential.
Existing Game Classification System
Prominent interactive entertainment events offer these award types recognizing Action-oriented games, Adventure-action titles, Role-Playing, Combat games, Sim/Strategy, and Sports/Racing games. Together, these six categories effectively encompass a lot of ground, making space possible accommodating various experiences.
This doesn't apply to logic-based experiences. No appropriate category exists for their placement. Think about these this year’s best games, all very different: structural challenges in a particular game, the pulse-pounding block-matching of another game, and the sweetly sociological logic puzzles in another game. What category would fit them between these six categories? Simply put, no category fits.
The Representation Problem
There are dozens outstanding logic titles published annually lacking appropriate categories in entertainment awards, unless they happen to qualify for categories like Handheld titles, VR/AR Game, or the intensely contested small studio competitions.
- A renowned logic title got overlooked for anything that year
- Another imaginative release missed out that year
- Popular arranging title got ignored in 2021
- Only a few brain-teasers managed to sneak into niche award types
Value of Brain-Teasers
Commonly they're compact experiences, however the design in brain-teasers carries substantial weight. Famous handheld logic titles stand as most popular titles globally continuing this trend for an extended period.
The iconic tile-matching title rivals popular creative games competing to become best-selling game of all time; it also contends for top gaming experience. Brain-teasers form essential building blocks within interactive entertainment, while interacting across multiple categories.
Proposal and Rationale
Puzzle games wouldn’t have that issue. It would be easy to populate multiple candidates with fascinating, diverse, deserving games annually without trouble — or rather, with difficulty, because you’d have to leave many worthy titles.
And to reiterate, these represent titles lacking appropriate categories in important events. Brain-teaser creators operate at the demanding boundary game development, producing among essential manifestations within interactive entertainment. Comparable to cinema stunt performers, they deserve recognition. Don't make them wait 35 years.
