As any significant prize-giving event approaches, you'll find an outcry for introducing of new categories to recognize unsung work and delight the passions of fans with niche passions.
My colleague has already made for a horror game category. That would rule. So would strategy board titles, which is a passionate advocate's mission. But they will have to forgive me for pushing forward since similar to blinkered fanatics, I have a cast-iron argument for why my demand remains most pressing and significant. The demand is this: There should be an award type for logic-based games.
Categorizing Game Types
Classifying creative works is not a science; it’s very subjective, and inevitably start arguments and end in fuzzy definitions. This explains why film award organizations steer clear of genre categories. But it is a necessary evil in the world of video games, which are so diverse they hardly constitute a single creative category.
To recognize the complete range of interactive entertainment excellence to receive acknowledgment, while allowing diverse titles to receive proper recognition, specific award classifications remain vital.
Present Award Structure
The major gaming awards presently include award types recognizing Action, Adventure-action titles, RPG experiences, Combat games, Sim/Strategy, plus athletic and racing experiences. Between them, these award types effectively encompass numerous genres, making space possible accommodating various experiences.
Not so for puzzle games. No appropriate category exists to put them. Examine these examples from outstanding current releases, all very different: structural challenges in a particular game, the pulse-pounding block-matching in a different title, and the sweetly sociological logic puzzles from additional release. Where could they possibly go within current classifications? Nowhere, that’s where.
The Representation Problem
Numerous examples exist excellent brain-teasers released every year without proper recognition 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 wasn’t nominated completely during that awards season
- A different innovative game missed out during that ceremony
- A beloved organization game got ignored recently
- Just some brain-teasers managed to sneak into niche award types
Importance of Logic Titles
These are often modest productions, yet the craft of the puzzle game holds tremendous importance. Iconic mobile puzzle games rank among most engaged experiences globally maintaining this status for over a decade.
The legendary block-stacking game challenges famous sandbox experiences for the title of highest-selling title ever; it also contends for best game of all time. Brain-teasers form essential building blocks for gaming as medium, and they are in conversation across multiple categories.
The Solution and Justification
Puzzle games wouldn’t have such difficulty. It would be easy to populate five nominees with fascinating, diverse, deserving games every year with ease — actually, with challenge, given the need to exclude many worthy titles.
Restating the point, these represent titles lacking appropriate categories during prominent ceremonies. Brain-teaser creators operate at the demanding boundary of video game design, producing among essential manifestations of gaming itself. Just like cinema stunt performers, they deserve recognition. Let’s not keep them waiting 35 years.
