As any prominent awards ceremony draws close, one notices a demand for introducing additional classifications to acknowledge unsung work and delight the spirits of enthusiasts dedicated to specific genres.
My colleague has already made advocating for terror-themed awards. That would rule. The same goes for tabletop games, which is a passionate advocate's mission. However, I must insist if I try to elbow in front just as with other dedicated enthusiasts, there's a strong justification supporting my request is the most urgent above others. The demand is this: There should be an award type for logic-based games.
The Genre Classification Challenge
Classifying creative works is not a science; opinions vary greatly, and it will always generate discussions and end in fuzzy definitions. It's understandable that film award organizations avoid this approach. Yet it remains a necessary evil for the industry of gaming, showing incredible range it's challenging to consider them one unified medium.
For the full spectrum of interactive entertainment excellence to be recognized, and for games of all stripes to receive proper recognition, classification by type becomes crucial.
Present Award Structure
The major gaming awards currently feature award types recognizing Action-oriented games, Action/Adventure, Role-Playing, Combat games, Sim/Strategy, plus athletic and racing experiences. Together, these six categories actually cover many game types, allowing placement for numerous titles.
Different situation exists for logic-based experiences. No appropriate category exists to accommodate them. Think about these this year’s best games, all very different: structural challenges of one title, the pulse-pounding block-matching from another release, engaging interpersonal challenges in another game. Where could they possibly go within current classifications? Unfortunately, nowhere.
Acknowledgment Issues
There are dozens excellent brain-teasers released every year lacking appropriate categories in entertainment awards, unless they happen to qualify for categories like Handheld titles, VR/AR Game, or the extremely competitive small studio competitions.
- An iconic brain-teaser got overlooked completely that year
- A different innovative game was excluded during that ceremony
- Well-received sorting experience received no acknowledgment that year
- Only a few logic titles scraped into independent or mobile categories
Significance of Puzzle Games
Commonly they're compact experiences, however the design in brain-teasers holds tremendous importance. Iconic mobile puzzle games stand as most engaged experiences in the world maintaining this status for many years.
The legendary block-stacking game rivals popular creative games competing to become most purchased experience; it also contends for best game of all time. Brain-teasers form essential building blocks for gaming as medium, and they are in conversation with diverse game types.
Recommendation and Reasoning
Puzzle games wouldn’t have this problem. You could fill a field of five with fascinating, diverse, deserving games every year with ease — actually, with challenge, given the need to exclude numerous deserving experiences.
And to reiterate, these are games without proper classification at major gaming awards. Puzzle game makers function at the hard edge game development, creating some of essential manifestations of the video game form. Just like movie stunt professionals, they deserve recognition. We shouldn't delay decades.
