As any major honors show nears, one notices a demand for introducing of new categories to honor unsung work and satisfy the spirits of fans with niche passions.
My colleague made the case for a horror game category. That would be fantastic. Equally deserving are board games, this being someone's personal cause. However, I must insist for pushing forward just as with other single-minded supporters, there's a strong justification for why my demand is the most urgent above others. Here's the proposal: There should be a category for puzzle games.
Categorizing Game Types
Classifying creative works is not a science; it remains highly personal, and it will always generate discussions resulting in unclear classifications. This explains why movie academies avoid this approach. Yet it remains an essential concession in the world of gaming, which are so diverse they barely qualify one unified medium.
To recognize the complete range of interactive entertainment excellence to be recognized, while allowing diverse titles to receive proper recognition, specific award classifications remain vital.
Current Gaming Award Categories
The major gaming awards currently feature classifications covering Action, Adventure-action titles, Role-Playing, Fighting, Sim/Strategy, and Sports/Racing games. Between them, these six categories actually cover numerous genres, allowing placement for most games within them.
Not so for logic-based experiences. No suitable classification appears to put them. Think about these outstanding current releases, each quite distinct: building puzzles from a specific release, intense tile-matching of another game, engaging interpersonal challenges in another game. Where could they possibly go among existing types? Unfortunately, nowhere.
Acknowledgment Issues
There are dozens excellent brain-teasers launched regularly that have no home during gaming ceremonies, except when they manage to fit for categories like Handheld titles, VR/AR Game, or the extremely competitive independent game categories.
- One classic puzzle game got overlooked for anything during that awards season
- A different innovative game was excluded during that ceremony
- Well-received sorting experience got ignored that year
- Limited numbers of brain-teasers managed to sneak into independent or mobile categories
Value of Brain-Teasers
Commonly they're modest productions, however the design behind logic titles holds tremendous importance. Famous handheld logic titles stand as most popular titles globally maintaining this status for over a decade.
The legendary block-stacking game challenges popular creative games competing to become most purchased experience; it also contends as greatest title ever. Logic titles represent cornerstones within interactive entertainment, and they are in conversation with almost every other genre.
Proposal and Rationale
Brain-teasers wouldn't encounter this problem. It would be easy to populate multiple candidates interesting, varied, worthy titles annually without trouble — perhaps, with difficulty, since numerous excellent numerous deserving experiences.
To emphasize again, these are games without proper classification during prominent ceremonies. Puzzle game makers function at the demanding boundary interactive creation, creating some of most fundamental forms of the video game form. Comparable to movie stunt professionals, they merit acknowledgment. Let’s not keep them waiting 35 years.
