As any significant awards ceremony nears, you'll find a demand for introducing fresh award types to honor underappreciated efforts and delight the passions of fans dedicated to specific genres.
A fellow writer has already made for a horror game category. It would be amazing. So would strategy board titles, which is a passionate advocate's mission. But they will have to forgive me for pushing forward since similar to dedicated enthusiasts, I possess a compelling case supporting my request is the most urgent and important of all. This is the request: There should be a category for puzzle games.
Categorizing Game Types
Organizing artistic expressions is not a science; it remains highly personal, and it will always spark debates and end in fuzzy definitions. This explains why movie academies avoid this approach. But it is an unavoidable compromise in the world of video games, which are so diverse they barely qualify as a single art form.
For comprehensive acknowledgment of gaming accomplishments to gain proper attention, and to ensure all game types 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, RPG experiences, Combat games, Simulation and strategy titles, and Sports/Racing games. Together, these award types successfully include many game types, allowing placement for most games within them.
Not so for logic-based experiences. No suitable classification appears to accommodate them. Examine these examples from recent excellent titles, all very different: structural challenges of one title, intense tile-matching from another release, engaging interpersonal challenges from additional release. What category would fit them between these six categories? Simply put, no category fits.
The Representation Problem
Numerous examples exist outstanding logic titles launched regularly that have no home at major award shows, if they accidentally match classification types such as Handheld titles, Virtual reality experiences, or the extremely competitive small studio competitions.
- An iconic brain-teaser got overlooked completely in 2014
- A different innovative game was excluded in 2019
- A beloved organization game was overlooked recently
- Limited numbers of puzzle games managed to sneak into small studio or handheld classifications
Significance of Puzzle Games
Commonly they're small games, but the art behind logic titles carries substantial weight. Iconic mobile puzzle games count as the most-played games in the world maintaining this status for an extended period.
The iconic tile-matching title rivals well-known building titles competing to become highest-selling title ever; it’s also in the running for top gaming experience. Brain-teasers form essential building blocks for gaming as medium, while interacting across multiple categories.
Proposal and Rationale
Logic titles wouldn't face that issue. You could fill a field of five engaging, different, qualified experiences every year with ease — actually, with challenge, since numerous excellent so many good games out.
To emphasize again, these are games lacking appropriate categories at major gaming awards. Puzzle game makers are working at the demanding boundary of video game design, developing some of most fundamental forms of the video game form. Just like cinema stunt performers, they merit acknowledgment. Let’s not keep them waiting decades.
