Each time a major honors show draws close, there’s always an outcry for introducing fresh award types to honor overlooked contributions and satisfy the passions of enthusiasts who have specialized interests.
A fellow writer made the case for a horror game category. That would be fantastic. So would tabletop games, which is someone's personal cause. However, I must insist if I try to elbow in front because like all dedicated enthusiasts, there's a strong justification for why my demand remains most pressing and important of all. Here's the proposal: It's essential to create a classification for brain-teasing titles.
Organizing Gaming Categories
Categorizing art by genre isn't exact; it’s very subjective, and typically generate discussions and end in fuzzy definitions. There’s a reason film award organizations steer clear of genre categories. However, it represents a necessary evil for the industry of video games, that demonstrate such variety they hardly constitute one unified medium.
For comprehensive acknowledgment of achievement in video games to receive acknowledgment, and to ensure all game types to have a chance for representation, classification by type becomes crucial.
Present Award Structure
Prominent interactive entertainment events offer these award types recognizing Action, Action/Adventure, Role-Playing, Fighting, Sim/Strategy, and Sports/Racing games. Collectively, these six categories effectively encompass many game types, making space possible accommodating various experiences.
This doesn't apply to puzzle games. No appropriate category exists to accommodate them. Consider three of this year’s best games, each quite distinct: structural challenges from a specific release, intense tile-matching in a different title, and the sweetly sociological logic puzzles of a third title. What category would fit them between these six categories? Simply put, no category fits.
Recognition Challenges
There are dozens of brilliant puzzle games published annually without proper recognition during gaming ceremonies, if they accidentally match award groups including Handheld titles, Virtual reality experiences, and the highly challenging Indie races.
- An iconic brain-teaser got overlooked completely in 2014
- A different innovative game was excluded that year
- A beloved organization game got ignored in 2021
- Just some brain-teasers managed to sneak into small studio or handheld classifications
Significance of Puzzle Games
These are often small games, however the design in brain-teasers carries substantial weight. Famous handheld logic titles count as the most-played games worldwide and have been for over a decade.
The iconic tile-matching title competes with popular creative games claiming status as best-selling game of all time; it’s also in the running for best game of all time. Puzzle games are foundational to the art of video games, and they are in conversation across multiple categories.
The Solution and Justification
Logic titles wouldn't face this problem. It would be easy to populate multiple candidates engaging, different, qualified experiences every year with ease — or rather, with difficulty, given the need to exclude many worthy titles.
And to reiterate, these include experiences lacking appropriate categories in important events. Puzzle game makers function at the hard edge interactive creation, creating some of the purest expressions within interactive entertainment. Comparable to cinema stunt performers, they deserve recognition. Let’s not keep them waiting decades.
