As any major awards ceremony nears, there’s always an outcry to include fresh award types to honor underappreciated efforts and satisfy the hearts of enthusiasts with niche passions.
A fellow writer has already made for a horror game category. It would be amazing. So would board games, which is a dedicated supporter's campaign. But they will have to forgive me when I prioritize just as with other dedicated enthusiasts, I have a cast-iron argument supporting my request stands as crucial and important of all. The demand is this: We need a category for puzzle games.
Categorizing Game Types
Categorizing art by genre defies precise measurement; it remains highly personal, and typically start arguments and end in fuzzy definitions. There’s a reason film award organizations don’t do it. But it is a necessary evil within the realm of interactive entertainment, which are so diverse they hardly constitute as a single art form.
For the full spectrum of interactive entertainment excellence to gain proper attention, and for games of all stripes to have a chance for representation, genre categories are essential.
Present Award Structure
Prominent interactive entertainment events offer these award types recognizing Action-oriented games, Action/Adventure, Role-Playing, Fighting, Sim/Strategy, plus athletic and racing experiences. Between them, these six categories successfully include a lot of ground, allowing placement accommodating various experiences.
Not so for puzzle games. There’s simply nowhere to put them. Consider three of this year’s best games, each quite distinct: structural challenges in a particular game, the pulse-pounding block-matching of another game, engaging interpersonal challenges from additional release. Which classification works within current classifications? Unfortunately, nowhere.
Acknowledgment Issues
Many instances occur outstanding logic titles launched regularly lacking appropriate categories during gaming ceremonies, unless they happen to qualify classification types such as Handheld titles, Virtual reality experiences, or the intensely contested Indie races.
- One classic puzzle game wasn’t nominated for anything in 2014
- Another creative title received no nominations in 2019
- Well-received sorting experience received no acknowledgment that year
- Just some logic titles barely qualified for small studio or handheld classifications
Importance of Logic Titles
Commonly they're small games, yet the craft in brain-teasers carries substantial weight. Well-known matching games rank among most popular titles in the world maintaining this status for many years.
The iconic tile-matching title competes with popular creative games claiming status as most purchased experience; it additionally competes for top gaming experience. Logic titles represent cornerstones for gaming as medium, while interacting with diverse game types.
The Solution and Justification
Puzzle games wouldn’t have such difficulty. It would be easy to populate multiple candidates engaging, different, qualified experiences annually without trouble — perhaps, with difficulty, because you’d have to leave so many good games out.
To emphasize again, these are games that otherwise have no home during prominent ceremonies. Logic title developers function at the hard edge of video game design, creating some of most fundamental forms of gaming itself. Similar to cinema stunt performers, they merit acknowledgment. Don't make them wait generations.
