Each time a major honors show nears, there’s always a demand to include fresh award types to recognize overlooked contributions and satisfy the spirits of enthusiasts with niche passions.
My colleague has already made for a horror game category. That would rule. The same goes for tabletop games, representing a passionate advocate's mission. Yet I need to apologize in advance for pushing forward because like all dedicated enthusiasts, there's a strong justification supporting my request 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 defies precise measurement; it remains highly personal, and inevitably spark debates resulting in unclear classifications. It's understandable that film award organizations don’t do it. However, it represents an essential concession for the industry of gaming, showing incredible range they barely qualify as a single art form.
To recognize the complete range 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, RPG experiences, Fighting, Simulation and strategy titles, plus athletic and racing experiences. Collectively, these classifications actually cover a lot of ground, allowing placement accommodating various experiences.
This doesn't apply to puzzle games. No suitable classification appears to accommodate them. Think about these this year’s best games, all very different: building puzzles in a particular game, the pulse-pounding block-matching of another game, thought-provoking social scenarios from additional release. Where could they possibly go between these six categories? Unfortunately, nowhere.
Acknowledgment Issues
Numerous examples exist excellent brain-teasers launched regularly without proper recognition during gaming ceremonies, except when they manage to fit award groups including Handheld titles, VR/AR Game, or the extremely competitive small studio competitions.
- One classic puzzle game got overlooked completely that year
- Another imaginative release was excluded during that ceremony
- A beloved organization game was overlooked recently
- Only a few logic titles managed to sneak into small studio or handheld classifications
Importance of Logic Titles
Frequently they represent modest productions, yet the craft in brain-teasers is of massive significance. Iconic mobile puzzle games rank among the most-played games worldwide continuing this trend for over a decade.
The iconic tile-matching title rivals popular creative games for the title of best-selling game of all time; it also contends as greatest title ever. Logic titles represent cornerstones within interactive entertainment, and they are in conversation with diverse game types.
Proposal and Rationale
Logic titles wouldn't face this problem. You could fill multiple candidates interesting, varied, worthy titles annually without trouble — or rather, with difficulty, because you’d have to leave many worthy titles.
Restating the point, these represent titles that otherwise have no home at major gaming awards. Puzzle game makers operate at the demanding boundary game development, developing some of most fundamental forms within interactive entertainment. Just like film action specialists, they merit acknowledgment. Don't make them wait decades.
