Each time a prominent prize-giving event draws close, one notices an outcry for the addition fresh award types to acknowledge underappreciated efforts and delight the passions of enthusiasts who have specialized interests.
A fellow writer has already made for a horror game category. That would rule. Equally deserving are tabletop games, which is someone's personal cause. However, I must insist when I prioritize because like all blinkered fanatics, I have a cast-iron argument for why my demand remains most pressing and important of all. The demand is this: We need a classification for brain-teasing titles.
The Genre Classification Challenge
Categorizing art by genre defies precise measurement; it remains highly personal, and typically spark debates resulting in unclear classifications. There’s a reason movie academies avoid this approach. But it is a necessary evil for the industry of interactive entertainment, showing incredible range they hardly constitute a single creative category.
To recognize the complete range of interactive entertainment excellence to receive acknowledgment, and to ensure all game types to have a chance for representation, specific award classifications remain vital.
Present Award Structure
Leading game ceremonies offer these classifications covering Action, Action/Adventure, Role-Playing, Fighting, Simulation and strategy titles, and Sports/Racing games. Between them, these classifications successfully include a lot of ground, allowing placement for numerous titles.
Different situation exists for puzzle games. No appropriate category exists for their placement. Think about these outstanding current releases, each quite distinct: the architectural riddles in a particular game, fast-paced pattern recognition of another game, thought-provoking social scenarios of a third title. Which classification works among existing types? Unfortunately, nowhere.
Recognition Challenges
Many instances occur of brilliant puzzle games launched regularly without proper recognition at major award shows, except when they manage to fit award groups including Handheld titles, VR/AR Game, and the highly challenging Indie races.
- A renowned logic title wasn’t nominated completely during that awards season
- Another imaginative release was excluded in 2019
- Well-received sorting experience was overlooked recently
- Only a few brain-teasers barely qualified for small studio or handheld classifications
Importance of Logic Titles
Frequently they represent compact experiences, but the art of the puzzle game is of massive significance. Famous handheld logic titles stand as most engaged experiences worldwide continuing this trend for over a decade.
The famous puzzle experience competes with famous sandbox experiences for the title of highest-selling title ever; it’s also in the running for top gaming experience. Brain-teasers form essential building blocks for gaming as medium, and engaging across multiple categories.
The Solution and Justification
Puzzle games wouldn’t have this problem. It would be easy to populate multiple candidates engaging, different, qualified experiences each ceremony simply — or rather, with difficulty, given the need to exclude numerous deserving experiences.
To emphasize again, these represent titles without proper classification at major gaming awards. Puzzle game makers are working at the hard edge game development, producing among most fundamental forms of gaming itself. Just like film action specialists, they deserve recognition. Don't make them wait 35 years.
