As any significant honors show draws close, you'll find a demand to include additional classifications to honor underappreciated efforts and delight the hearts of fans with niche passions.
A fellow writer made the case for a horror game category. It would be amazing. So would tabletop games, representing someone's personal cause. Yet I need to apologize in advance if I try to elbow in front since similar to dedicated enthusiasts, I have a cast-iron argument backing this proposal remains most pressing and significant. This is the request: We need a category for puzzle games.
The Genre Classification Challenge
Organizing artistic expressions defies precise measurement; opinions vary greatly, and typically spark debates resulting in unclear classifications. This explains why cinema institutions don’t do it. However, it represents a necessary evil within the realm of interactive entertainment, that demonstrate such variety they hardly constitute one unified medium.
For the full spectrum of gaming accomplishments to be recognized, and to ensure all game types to compete fairly, genre categories are essential.
Current Gaming Award Categories
Leading game ceremonies presently include classifications covering Action-oriented games, Action/Adventure, Role-Playing, Combat games, Sim/Strategy, plus athletic and racing experiences. Between them, these six categories actually cover a lot of ground, allowing placement for most games within them.
Different situation exists for brain-teasing titles. No suitable classification appears for their placement. Think about these this year’s best games, each quite distinct: 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. Which classification works within current classifications? Simply put, no category fits.
Recognition Challenges
Numerous examples exist excellent brain-teasers published annually that have no home during gaming ceremonies, if they accidentally match classification types such as Mobile Game, Virtual reality experiences, or the extremely competitive small studio competitions.
- One classic puzzle game wasn’t nominated in any category in 2014
- Another creative title received no nominations in 2019
- A beloved organization game got ignored that year
- Just some logic titles scraped into niche award types
Importance of Logic Titles
Frequently they represent modest productions, but the art of the puzzle game holds tremendous importance. Iconic mobile puzzle games count as the most-played games in the world and have been for an extended period.
The legendary block-stacking game challenges well-known building titles for the title of most purchased experience; it also contends for best game of all time. Puzzle games are foundational within interactive entertainment, while interacting with almost every other genre.
Recommendation and Reasoning
Puzzle games wouldn’t have such difficulty. You could fill multiple candidates with fascinating, diverse, deserving games annually without trouble — actually, with challenge, given the need to exclude numerous deserving experiences.
To emphasize again, these are games that otherwise have no home at major gaming awards. Puzzle game makers are working at the demanding boundary of video game design, creating some of essential manifestations of gaming itself. Similar to cinema stunt performers, they merit acknowledgment. Don't make them wait generations.
