As any significant awards ceremony draws close, one notices a clamor to include of new categories to honor unsung work and delight the hearts of fans who have specialized interests.
A fellow writer has already made for a horror game category. That would be fantastic. Equally deserving are tabletop games, which is someone's personal cause. However, I must insist for pushing forward since similar to single-minded supporters, I possess a compelling case backing this proposal stands as crucial and significant. This is the request: There should be a category for puzzle games.
Organizing Gaming Categories
Categorizing art by genre defies precise measurement; it’s very subjective, and typically start arguments concluding with vague boundaries. It's understandable that movie academies don’t do it. Yet it remains an unavoidable compromise within the realm of interactive entertainment, showing incredible range they barely qualify as a single art form.
To recognize the complete range of gaming accomplishments to gain proper attention, while allowing diverse titles to receive proper recognition, classification by type becomes crucial.
Existing Game Classification System
The major gaming awards offer these classifications covering Action-oriented games, Action/Adventure, RPG experiences, Fighting, Simulation and strategy titles, plus athletic and racing experiences. Between them, these classifications effectively encompass many game types, allowing placement for most games within them.
Not so for logic-based experiences. There’s simply nowhere for their placement. Examine these examples from outstanding current releases, showing diverse approaches: the architectural riddles in a particular game, fast-paced pattern recognition in a different title, and the sweetly sociological logic puzzles of a third title. Which classification works between these six categories? Simply put, no category fits.
Recognition Challenges
There are dozens excellent brain-teasers launched regularly without proper recognition at major award shows, if they accidentally match for categories like Handheld titles, VR/AR Game, and the highly challenging small studio competitions.
- A renowned logic title wasn’t nominated in any category in 2014
- Another creative title missed out that year
- Popular arranging title got ignored in 2021
- Limited numbers of puzzle games scraped into independent or mobile categories
Significance of Puzzle Games
These are often modest productions, yet the craft behind logic titles carries substantial weight. Famous handheld logic titles count as most engaged experiences globally continuing this trend for many years.
The legendary block-stacking game competes with famous sandbox experiences for the title of most purchased experience; it’s also in the running as greatest title ever. Puzzle games are foundational for gaming as medium, while interacting with almost every other genre.
Proposal and Rationale
Brain-teasers wouldn't encounter such difficulty. One could readily select multiple candidates interesting, varied, worthy titles annually without trouble — actually, with challenge, given the need to exclude many worthy titles.
To emphasize again, these represent titles without proper classification at major gaming awards. Brain-teaser creators are working at the demanding boundary of video game design, developing some of the purest expressions within interactive entertainment. Just like cinema stunt performers, they deserve recognition. We shouldn't delay generations.
