Whenever a prominent awards ceremony nears, there’s always an outcry for introducing fresh award types to honor overlooked contributions and delight the spirits of followers dedicated to specific genres.
My colleague has already made advocating for terror-themed awards. That would rule. So would tabletop games, which is a passionate advocate's mission. However, I must insist when I prioritize since similar to dedicated enthusiasts, I have a cast-iron argument supporting my request is the most urgent and important of all. Here's the proposal: It's essential to create a category for puzzle games.
Organizing Gaming Categories
Categorizing art by genre is not a science; opinions vary greatly, and inevitably start arguments concluding with vague boundaries. It's understandable that film award organizations don’t do it. However, it represents an unavoidable compromise for the industry of gaming, which are so diverse they barely qualify one unified medium.
To recognize the complete range of interactive entertainment excellence to gain proper attention, while allowing diverse titles to have a chance for representation, genre categories are essential.
Current Gaming Award Categories
Leading game ceremonies currently feature classifications covering Action, Action/Adventure, RPG experiences, Fighting, Simulation and strategy titles, plus athletic and racing experiences. Together, these award types actually cover numerous genres, allowing placement for numerous titles.
Not so for puzzle games. There’s simply nowhere to accommodate them. Examine these examples from recent excellent titles, showing diverse approaches: the architectural riddles of one title, intense tile-matching of another game, engaging interpersonal challenges in another game. Where could they possibly go among existing types? Unfortunately, nowhere.
Acknowledgment Issues
Numerous examples exist excellent brain-teasers published annually without proper recognition in entertainment awards, if they accidentally match for categories like Handheld titles, Virtual reality experiences, or the extremely competitive independent game categories.
- An iconic brain-teaser got overlooked in any category that year
- Another creative title missed out that year
- Well-received sorting experience got ignored recently
- Only a few logic titles barely qualified for independent or mobile categories
Importance of Logic Titles
Frequently they represent modest productions, yet the craft behind logic titles carries substantial weight. Well-known matching games rank among most engaged experiences in the world continuing this trend for over a decade.
The iconic tile-matching title challenges well-known building titles claiming status as best-selling game of all time; it also contends for top gaming experience. Puzzle games are foundational to the art of video games, and they are in conversation with diverse game types.
Recommendation and Reasoning
Brain-teasers wouldn't encounter such difficulty. One could readily select five nominees with fascinating, diverse, deserving games annually without trouble — or rather, with difficulty, because you’d have to leave so many good games out.
Restating the point, these include experiences without proper classification in important events. Logic title developers operate at the hard edge interactive creation, producing among the purest expressions of the video game form. Comparable to film action specialists, they deserve recognition. Don't make them wait 35 years.
