As any prominent prize-giving event draws close, there’s always a clamor for introducing fresh award types to acknowledge underappreciated efforts and fill the spirits of enthusiasts who have specialized interests.
A fellow writer has already made supporting a scary games classification. That would be fantastic. So would tabletop games, which is someone's personal cause. Yet I need to apologize in advance for pushing forward because like all single-minded supporters, I have a cast-iron argument backing this proposal remains most pressing above others. Here's the proposal: We need a category for puzzle games.
Organizing Gaming Categories
Organizing artistic expressions is not a science; it remains highly personal, and it will always start arguments and end in fuzzy definitions. It's understandable that cinema institutions avoid this approach. However, it represents a necessary evil within the realm of interactive entertainment, showing incredible range they barely qualify one unified medium.
For comprehensive acknowledgment of gaming accomplishments to be recognized, and to ensure all game types to compete fairly, genre categories are essential.
Present Award Structure
The major gaming awards offer these classifications covering Action, Action/Adventure, Role-Playing, Combat games, Sim/Strategy, and Sports/Racing games. Together, these classifications actually cover a lot of ground, making space possible for numerous titles.
Different situation exists for brain-teasing titles. There’s simply nowhere to put them. Think about these this year’s best games, each quite distinct: the architectural riddles of one title, the pulse-pounding block-matching from another release, and the sweetly sociological logic puzzles of a third title. Where could they possibly go within current classifications? Unfortunately, nowhere.
Acknowledgment Issues
Many instances occur outstanding logic titles released every year that have no home during gaming ceremonies, if they accidentally match award groups including Mobile Game, VR/AR Game, or the extremely competitive small studio competitions.
- An iconic brain-teaser got overlooked for anything during that awards season
- Another imaginative release missed out during that ceremony
- Well-received sorting experience got ignored in 2021
- Limited numbers of logic titles barely qualified for small studio or handheld classifications
Importance of Logic Titles
Commonly they're compact experiences, however the design behind logic titles is of massive significance. Well-known matching games rank among the most-played games in the world continuing this trend for over a decade.
The famous puzzle experience rivals famous sandbox experiences competing to become best-selling game of all time; it additionally competes for best game of all time. Puzzle games are foundational within interactive entertainment, while interacting with almost every other genre.
The Solution and Justification
Brain-teasers wouldn't encounter that issue. One could readily select multiple candidates engaging, different, qualified experiences each ceremony simply — actually, with challenge, since numerous excellent so many good games out.
Restating the point, these represent titles that otherwise have no home during prominent ceremonies. Logic title developers operate at the hard edge of video game design, developing some of the purest expressions of gaming itself. Comparable to film action specialists, they warrant appreciation. Let’s not keep them waiting 35 years.
