As any significant awards ceremony draws close, there’s always an outcry for the addition fresh award types to acknowledge underappreciated efforts and fill the spirits of fans dedicated to specific genres.
A fellow writer previously argued advocating for terror-themed awards. That would be fantastic. So would board games, this being someone's personal cause. But they will have to forgive me when I prioritize because like all blinkered fanatics, I have a cast-iron argument backing this proposal stands as crucial above others. Here's the proposal: We need a category for puzzle games.
The Genre Classification Challenge
Categorizing art by genre is not a science; opinions vary greatly, and it will always start arguments resulting in unclear classifications. It's understandable that movie academies don’t do it. Yet it remains an essential concession within the realm of interactive entertainment, that demonstrate such variety they hardly constitute as a single art form.
For the full spectrum of gaming accomplishments to receive acknowledgment, while allowing diverse titles to receive proper recognition, genre categories are essential.
Current Gaming Award Categories
The major gaming awards presently include genre categories for Action, Action/Adventure, RPG experiences, Fighting, Simulation and strategy titles, plus athletic and racing experiences. Together, these award types actually cover a lot of ground, allowing placement for most games within them.
This doesn't apply to logic-based experiences. There’s simply nowhere to put them. Examine these examples from this year’s best games, showing diverse approaches: building puzzles in a particular game, the pulse-pounding block-matching from another release, and the sweetly sociological logic puzzles in another game. What category would fit them among existing types? Unfortunately, nowhere.
Acknowledgment Issues
Many instances occur outstanding logic titles released every year without proper recognition at major award shows, except when they manage to fit award groups including Mobile Game, Virtual reality experiences, or the intensely contested small studio competitions.
- A renowned logic title received no recognition completely in 2014
- A different innovative game missed out in 2019
- Popular arranging title was overlooked in 2021
- Only a few brain-teasers barely qualified for small studio or handheld classifications
Significance of Puzzle Games
These are often modest productions, yet the craft of the puzzle game holds tremendous importance. Well-known matching games count as most engaged experiences in the world continuing this trend for over a decade.
The famous puzzle experience rivals famous sandbox experiences for the title of 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, and engaging with almost every other genre.
The Solution and Justification
Logic titles wouldn't face that issue. It would be easy to populate five nominees interesting, varied, worthy titles every year with ease — or rather, with difficulty, because you’d have to leave numerous deserving experiences.
And to reiterate, these include experiences that otherwise have no home during prominent ceremonies. Puzzle game makers are working at the challenging frontier game development, producing among essential manifestations within interactive entertainment. Similar to cinema stunt performers, they deserve recognition. Don't make them wait decades.
