Each time a major prize-giving event approaches, one notices an outcry to include additional classifications to honor underappreciated efforts and delight the hearts of enthusiasts dedicated to specific genres.
My colleague has already made for a horror game category. That would be fantastic. The same goes for strategy board titles, this being a dedicated supporter's campaign. Yet I need to apologize in advance for pushing forward because like all single-minded supporters, I possess a compelling case for why my demand is the most urgent and important of all. Here's the proposal: It's essential to create a category for puzzle games.
Categorizing Game Types
Classifying creative works is not a science; opinions vary greatly, and typically start arguments and end in fuzzy definitions. There’s a reason movie academies steer clear of genre categories. But it is an essential concession within the realm of gaming, that demonstrate such variety it's challenging to consider them one unified medium.
For the full spectrum of gaming accomplishments to receive acknowledgment, and for games of all stripes to have a chance for representation, classification by type becomes crucial.
Current Gaming Award Categories
The major gaming awards offer these classifications covering Action-oriented games, Adventure-action titles, Role-Playing, Combat games, Simulation and strategy titles, and Sports/Racing games. Collectively, these six categories successfully include many game types, making space possible for most games within them.
Not so for logic-based experiences. No suitable classification appears for their placement. Think about these this year’s best games, all very different: building puzzles in a particular game, intense tile-matching of another game, engaging interpersonal challenges from additional release. Which classification works between these six categories? Unfortunately, nowhere.
Acknowledgment Issues
Many instances occur excellent brain-teasers launched regularly lacking appropriate categories at major award shows, unless they happen to qualify for categories like Handheld titles, VR/AR Game, and the highly challenging independent game categories.
- An iconic brain-teaser got overlooked completely in 2014
- Another creative title received no nominations in 2019
- Well-received sorting experience received no acknowledgment that year
- Only a few brain-teasers scraped into small studio or handheld classifications
Value of Brain-Teasers
These are often modest productions, but the art behind logic titles holds tremendous importance. Iconic mobile puzzle games stand as most engaged experiences in the world maintaining this status for many years.
The legendary block-stacking game challenges famous sandbox experiences competing to become most purchased experience; it also contends for best game of all time. Logic titles represent cornerstones for gaming as medium, and they are in conversation across multiple categories.
Proposal and Rationale
Brain-teasers wouldn't encounter this problem. It would be easy to populate multiple candidates interesting, varied, worthy titles every year with ease — or rather, with difficulty, because you’d have to leave so many good games out.
Restating the point, these include experiences lacking appropriate categories at major gaming awards. Logic title developers operate at the demanding boundary interactive creation, developing some of the purest expressions of the video game form. Comparable to movie stunt professionals, they warrant appreciation. We shouldn't delay decades.
