Each time a significant prize-giving event approaches, one notices an outcry for the addition fresh award types to recognize underappreciated efforts and delight the spirits of fans dedicated to specific genres.
A fellow writer previously argued for a horror game category. It would be amazing. Equally deserving are tabletop games, this being someone's personal cause. But they will have to forgive me when I prioritize just as with other dedicated enthusiasts, I have a cast-iron argument backing this proposal is the most urgent and important of all. The demand is this: We need a category for puzzle games.
Organizing Gaming Categories
Categorizing art by genre defies precise measurement; it’s very subjective, and it will always spark debates and end in fuzzy definitions. This explains why cinema institutions avoid this approach. But it is an essential concession within the realm of gaming, showing incredible range they barely qualify as a single art form.
To recognize the complete range of achievement in video games to receive acknowledgment, while allowing diverse titles to compete fairly, classification by type becomes crucial.
Current Gaming Award Categories
Leading game ceremonies presently include genre categories for Action-oriented games, Action/Adventure, Role-Playing, Fighting, Sim/Strategy, and Sports/Racing games. Collectively, these six categories successfully include a lot of ground, making space possible for most games within them.
Not so for puzzle games. No appropriate category exists to put them. Examine these examples from recent excellent titles, each quite distinct: building puzzles in a particular game, fast-paced pattern recognition in a different title, and the sweetly sociological logic puzzles of a third title. What category would fit them between these six categories? Nowhere, that’s where.
Recognition Challenges
There are dozens excellent brain-teasers published annually without proper recognition at major award shows, if they accidentally match classification types such as Mobile Game, VR/AR Game, or the intensely contested independent game categories.
- One classic puzzle game wasn’t nominated in any category that year
- Another imaginative release missed out that year
- A beloved organization game received no acknowledgment recently
- Only a few puzzle games scraped into niche award types
Value of Brain-Teasers
Commonly they're modest productions, but the art in brain-teasers carries substantial weight. Iconic mobile puzzle games stand as the most-played games worldwide maintaining this status for an extended period.
The famous puzzle experience rivals famous sandbox experiences for the title of most purchased experience; it’s also in the running as greatest title ever. Logic titles represent cornerstones for gaming as medium, and engaging across multiple categories.
Recommendation and Reasoning
Logic titles wouldn't face that issue. You could fill five nominees interesting, varied, worthy titles every year with ease — or rather, with difficulty, because you’d have to leave so many good games out.
Restating the point, these represent titles that otherwise have no home at major gaming awards. Puzzle game makers are working at the challenging frontier of video game design, creating some of essential manifestations within interactive entertainment. Just like cinema stunt performers, they deserve recognition. Let’s not keep them waiting generations.
