Whenever a significant honors show draws close, one notices an outcry for the addition fresh award types to honor unsung work and delight the hearts of followers with niche passions.
Another commentator has already made for a horror game category. That would be fantastic. Equally deserving are tabletop games, representing a passionate advocate's mission. But they will have to forgive me if I try to elbow in front since similar to single-minded supporters, there's a strong justification for why my demand remains most pressing above others. Here's the proposal: It's essential to create a category for puzzle games.
The Genre Classification Challenge
Categorizing art by genre defies precise measurement; it remains highly personal, and it will always spark debates concluding with vague boundaries. This explains why film award organizations avoid this approach. However, it represents an unavoidable compromise within the realm of gaming, showing incredible range it's challenging to consider them one unified medium.
For comprehensive acknowledgment of interactive entertainment excellence to receive acknowledgment, while allowing diverse titles to compete fairly, classification by type becomes crucial.
Current Gaming Award Categories
Leading game ceremonies presently include award types recognizing Action, Action/Adventure, RPG experiences, Combat games, Sim/Strategy, plus athletic and racing experiences. Between them, these six categories actually cover a lot of ground, allowing placement for most games within them.
This doesn't apply to brain-teasing titles. There’s simply nowhere for their placement. Consider three of recent excellent titles, showing diverse approaches: the architectural riddles from a specific release, intense tile-matching in a different title, thought-provoking social scenarios in another game. Which classification works between these six categories? Unfortunately, nowhere.
Recognition Challenges
There are dozens of brilliant puzzle games published annually that have no home during gaming ceremonies, except when they manage to fit 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 that year
- A different innovative game was excluded in 2019
- Well-received sorting experience got ignored recently
- Just some puzzle games managed to sneak into independent or mobile categories
Value of Brain-Teasers
Commonly they're compact experiences, but the art behind logic titles holds tremendous importance. Iconic mobile puzzle games rank among most popular titles globally maintaining this status for over a decade.
The iconic tile-matching title rivals popular creative games claiming status as highest-selling title ever; it additionally competes for top gaming experience. Puzzle games are foundational to the art of video games, and engaging with almost every other genre.
The Solution and Justification
Brain-teasers wouldn't encounter that issue. It would be easy to populate multiple candidates interesting, varied, worthy titles every year with ease — actually, with challenge, since numerous excellent many worthy titles.
And to reiterate, these are games without proper classification during prominent ceremonies. Brain-teaser creators are working at the hard edge interactive creation, creating some of the purest expressions within interactive entertainment. Similar to cinema stunt performers, they deserve recognition. Don't make them wait 35 years.
