Whenever a prominent awards ceremony approaches, you'll find a demand for introducing of new categories to acknowledge underappreciated efforts and fill the passions of fans with niche passions.
My colleague made the case supporting a scary games classification. That would be fantastic. Equally deserving are strategy board titles, representing a passionate advocate's mission. Yet I need to apologize in advance for pushing forward because like all blinkered fanatics, there's a strong justification supporting my request remains most pressing and significant. This is the request: We need a category for puzzle games.
Organizing Gaming Categories
Classifying creative works defies precise measurement; it’s very subjective, and inevitably generate discussions resulting in unclear classifications. There’s a reason cinema institutions avoid this approach. But it is an unavoidable compromise within the realm of gaming, showing incredible range they hardly constitute a single creative category.
To recognize the complete range of achievement in video games to receive acknowledgment, while allowing diverse titles to have a chance for representation, genre categories are essential.
Present Award Structure
Leading game ceremonies currently feature award types recognizing Action-oriented games, Action/Adventure, RPG experiences, Fighting, Sim/Strategy, and Sports/Racing games. Collectively, these six categories effectively encompass a lot of ground, making space possible for numerous titles.
Different situation exists for puzzle games. No appropriate category exists to accommodate them. Consider three of outstanding current releases, showing diverse approaches: the architectural riddles of one title, fast-paced pattern recognition in a different title, thought-provoking social scenarios in another game. What category would fit them between these six categories? Nowhere, that’s where.
Recognition Challenges
Numerous examples exist excellent brain-teasers published annually that have no home at major award shows, unless they happen to qualify classification types such as Mobile Game, VR/AR Game, or the extremely competitive small studio competitions.
- A renowned logic title wasn’t nominated completely in 2014
- A different innovative game missed out during that ceremony
- Well-received sorting experience got ignored recently
- Only a few puzzle games barely qualified for independent or mobile categories
Importance of Logic Titles
Frequently they represent modest productions, yet the craft in brain-teasers is of massive significance. Famous handheld logic titles count as the most-played games in the world maintaining this status for an extended period.
The famous puzzle experience competes with famous sandbox experiences claiming status as best-selling game of all time; it’s also in the running as greatest title ever. Brain-teasers form essential building blocks to the art of video games, while interacting with almost every other genre.
The Solution and Justification
Puzzle games wouldn’t have this problem. You could fill a field of five interesting, varied, worthy titles annually without trouble — or rather, with difficulty, given the need to exclude numerous deserving experiences.
And to reiterate, these include experiences that otherwise have no home in important events. Puzzle game makers operate at the hard edge interactive creation, creating some of the purest expressions of the video game form. Similar to film action specialists, they merit acknowledgment. Don't make them wait 35 years.
