Each time a major prize-giving event approaches, you'll find an outcry for introducing additional classifications to acknowledge underappreciated efforts and delight the spirits of enthusiasts who have specialized interests.
A fellow writer has already made for a horror game category. That would be fantastic. Equally deserving are strategy board titles, this being a passionate advocate's mission. However, I must insist when I prioritize since similar to blinkered fanatics, there's a strong justification supporting my request remains most pressing above others. The demand is this: It's essential to create a category for puzzle games.
Categorizing Game Types
Classifying creative works is not a science; opinions vary greatly, and it will always start arguments and end in fuzzy definitions. There’s a reason movie academies steer clear of genre categories. But it is a necessary evil for the industry of interactive entertainment, showing incredible range it's challenging to consider them one unified medium.
For the full spectrum of interactive entertainment excellence to gain proper attention, and for games of all stripes to have a chance for representation, specific award classifications remain vital.
Current Gaming Award Categories
The major gaming awards currently feature classifications covering Action, Adventure-action titles, Role-Playing, Combat games, Simulation and strategy titles, and Sports/Racing games. Together, these classifications successfully include many game types, allowing placement accommodating various experiences.
Not so for puzzle games. No suitable classification appears to accommodate them. Consider three of this year’s best games, each quite distinct: the architectural riddles in a particular game, the pulse-pounding block-matching in a different title, engaging interpersonal challenges in another game. Where could they possibly go between these six categories? Nowhere, that’s where.
The Representation Problem
There are dozens excellent brain-teasers launched regularly that have no home during gaming ceremonies, unless they happen to qualify classification types such as Handheld titles, VR/AR Game, and the highly challenging independent game categories.
- One classic puzzle game received no recognition for anything that year
- Another creative title missed out in 2019
- A beloved organization game received no acknowledgment recently
- Just some logic titles barely qualified for small studio or handheld classifications
Significance of Puzzle Games
Commonly they're small games, but the art in brain-teasers is of massive significance. Iconic mobile puzzle games stand as most engaged experiences worldwide and have been for over a decade.
The famous puzzle experience challenges famous sandbox experiences for the title of highest-selling title ever; it also contends for best game of all time. Logic titles represent cornerstones to the art of video games, and they are in conversation across multiple categories.
Recommendation and Reasoning
Logic titles wouldn't face such difficulty. You could fill multiple candidates with fascinating, diverse, deserving games annually without trouble — or rather, with difficulty, because you’d have to leave numerous deserving experiences.
Restating the point, these represent titles without proper classification at major gaming awards. Puzzle game makers function at the hard edge game development, developing some of most fundamental forms within interactive entertainment. Comparable to cinema stunt performers, they warrant appreciation. Don't make them wait generations.
