Each time a major prize-giving event draws close, one notices a demand to include fresh award types to honor underappreciated efforts and delight the hearts of followers with niche passions.
Another commentator has already made for a horror game category. That would rule. The same goes for tabletop games, this being someone's personal cause. However, I must insist when I prioritize since similar to single-minded supporters, I have a cast-iron argument backing this proposal is the most urgent and important of all. The demand is this: It's essential to create a category for puzzle games.
Organizing Gaming Categories
Classifying creative works is not a science; it remains highly personal, and typically generate discussions concluding with vague boundaries. It's understandable that movie academies avoid this approach. Yet it remains an essential concession within the realm of gaming, that demonstrate such variety they hardly constitute as a single art form.
For the full spectrum of achievement in video games to gain proper attention, and for games of all stripes to have a chance for representation, classification by type becomes crucial.
Existing Game Classification System
The major gaming awards currently feature award types recognizing Action-oriented games, Action/Adventure, RPG experiences, Combat games, Simulation and strategy titles, plus athletic and racing experiences. Together, these classifications actually cover many game types, and you can find room for numerous titles.
Different situation exists for puzzle games. There’s simply nowhere to accommodate them. Examine these examples from this year’s best games, showing diverse approaches: building puzzles from a specific release, fast-paced pattern recognition of another game, engaging interpersonal challenges in another game. Where could they possibly go between these six categories? Simply put, no category fits.
Recognition Challenges
Many instances occur excellent brain-teasers released every year lacking appropriate categories at major award shows, except when they manage to fit for categories like Handheld titles, VR/AR Game, or the extremely competitive small studio competitions.
- One classic puzzle game got overlooked completely that year
- Another imaginative release was excluded in 2019
- A beloved organization game received no acknowledgment recently
- Just some logic titles managed to sneak into small studio or handheld classifications
Importance of Logic Titles
Frequently they represent compact experiences, however the design behind logic titles carries substantial weight. Well-known matching games rank among most engaged experiences globally maintaining this status for over a decade.
The famous puzzle experience competes with popular creative games claiming status as most purchased experience; it also contends for top gaming experience. Brain-teasers form essential building blocks to the art of video games, and engaging with almost every other genre.
Proposal and Rationale
Puzzle games wouldn’t have that issue. One could readily select a field of five with fascinating, diverse, deserving games annually without trouble — actually, with challenge, given the need to exclude so many good games out.
To emphasize again, these are games that otherwise have no home in important events. Logic title developers operate at the challenging frontier interactive creation, developing some of the purest expressions of gaming itself. Just like movie stunt professionals, they warrant appreciation. Let’s not keep them waiting 35 years.
