Each time a significant prize-giving event approaches, there’s always a demand to include of new categories to acknowledge overlooked contributions and satisfy the spirits of followers dedicated to specific genres.
My colleague made the case for a horror game category. It would be amazing. Equally deserving are board games, representing someone's personal cause. But they will have to forgive me when I prioritize because like all dedicated enthusiasts, I have a cast-iron argument supporting my request remains most pressing and significant. The demand is this: We need an award type for logic-based games.
The Genre Classification Challenge
Categorizing art by genre is not a science; it’s very subjective, and it will always spark debates resulting in unclear classifications. It's understandable that film award organizations steer clear of genre categories. Yet it remains an unavoidable compromise for the industry of gaming, that demonstrate such variety they hardly constitute a single creative category.
For comprehensive acknowledgment of gaming accomplishments to gain proper attention, while allowing diverse titles to have a chance for representation, classification by type becomes crucial.
Existing Game Classification System
Leading game ceremonies presently include classifications covering Action, Action/Adventure, Role-Playing, Fighting, Sim/Strategy, plus athletic and racing experiences. Between them, these classifications successfully include numerous genres, making space possible accommodating various experiences.
Different situation exists for logic-based experiences. There’s simply nowhere to put them. Think about these recent excellent titles, showing diverse approaches: building puzzles from a specific release, intense tile-matching from another release, engaging interpersonal challenges of a third title. Which classification works between these six categories? Unfortunately, nowhere.
Recognition Challenges
Many instances occur outstanding logic titles published annually that have no home during gaming ceremonies, if they accidentally match for categories like Mobile Game, VR/AR Game, and the highly challenging Indie races.
- An iconic brain-teaser wasn’t nominated for anything that year
- Another creative title missed out in 2019
- A beloved organization game got ignored recently
- Limited numbers of brain-teasers managed to sneak into independent or mobile categories
Significance of Puzzle Games
Commonly they're modest productions, but the art behind logic titles carries substantial weight. Famous handheld logic titles rank among the most-played games in the world continuing this trend for over a decade.
The legendary block-stacking game competes with famous sandbox experiences for the title of most purchased experience; it additionally competes for top gaming experience. Puzzle games are foundational within interactive entertainment, and engaging with almost every other genre.
Recommendation and Reasoning
Brain-teasers wouldn't encounter such difficulty. One could readily select a field of five with fascinating, diverse, deserving games every year with ease — or rather, with difficulty, given the need to exclude numerous deserving experiences.
And to reiterate, these represent titles without proper classification during prominent ceremonies. Brain-teaser creators are working at the demanding boundary interactive creation, producing among the purest expressions within interactive entertainment. Just like cinema stunt performers, they merit acknowledgment. We shouldn't delay decades.
