As any prominent awards ceremony nears, one notices a clamor to include fresh award types to recognize overlooked contributions and fill the hearts of enthusiasts with niche passions.
A fellow writer has already made supporting a scary games classification. It would be amazing. Equally deserving are tabletop games, representing a dedicated supporter's campaign. Yet I need to apologize in advance when I prioritize just as with other blinkered fanatics, I possess a compelling case for why my demand remains most pressing above others. The demand is this: There should be a category for puzzle games.
Organizing Gaming Categories
Classifying creative works is not a science; opinions vary greatly, and it will always spark debates and end in fuzzy definitions. This explains why movie academies don’t do it. Yet it remains an unavoidable compromise in the world of video games, that demonstrate such variety they barely qualify a single creative category.
For comprehensive acknowledgment of interactive entertainment excellence to gain proper attention, while allowing diverse titles to have a chance for representation, classification by type becomes crucial.
Current Gaming Award Categories
Prominent interactive entertainment events currently feature classifications covering Action, Action/Adventure, RPG experiences, Combat games, Sim/Strategy, plus athletic and racing experiences. Collectively, these award types successfully include a lot of ground, and you can find room for most games within them.
Different situation exists for brain-teasing titles. No appropriate category exists for their placement. Examine these examples from recent excellent titles, showing diverse approaches: structural challenges in a particular game, the pulse-pounding block-matching of another game, engaging interpersonal challenges from additional release. What category would fit them among existing types? Nowhere, that’s where.
Acknowledgment Issues
Numerous examples exist excellent brain-teasers released every year lacking appropriate categories at major award shows, unless they happen to qualify for categories like Handheld titles, VR/AR Game, and the highly challenging Indie races.
- One classic puzzle game got overlooked in any category that year
- A different innovative game was excluded during that ceremony
- Well-received sorting experience got ignored in 2021
- Just some puzzle games managed to sneak into niche award types
Significance of Puzzle Games
Frequently they represent modest productions, however the design in brain-teasers carries substantial weight. Iconic mobile puzzle games rank among the most-played games in the world continuing this trend for an extended period.
The iconic tile-matching title rivals well-known building titles competing to become most purchased experience; it additionally competes for best game of all time. Logic titles represent cornerstones for gaming as medium, and they are in conversation with almost every other genre.
Proposal and Rationale
Puzzle games wouldn’t have that issue. It would be easy to populate five nominees engaging, different, qualified experiences every year with ease — or rather, with difficulty, given the need to exclude many worthy titles.
And to reiterate, these are games that otherwise have no home in important events. Puzzle game makers operate at the hard edge game development, developing some of essential manifestations of gaming itself. Similar to cinema stunt performers, they deserve recognition. Let’s not keep them waiting 35 years.
