Each time a prominent awards ceremony draws close, one notices an outcry to include fresh award types to recognize unsung work and delight the spirits of fans who have specialized interests.
My colleague previously argued for a horror game category. It would be amazing. So would strategy board titles, which is a passionate advocate's mission. But they will have to forgive me if I try to elbow in front because like all dedicated enthusiasts, there's a strong justification backing this proposal stands as crucial and important of all. The demand is this: There should be a classification for brain-teasing titles.
The Genre Classification Challenge
Organizing artistic expressions is not a science; opinions vary greatly, and it will always spark debates resulting in unclear classifications. It's understandable that film award organizations don’t do it. However, it represents a necessary evil for the industry of interactive entertainment, showing incredible range they barely qualify a single creative category.
For comprehensive acknowledgment of interactive entertainment excellence to be recognized, and for games of all stripes to receive proper recognition, classification by type becomes crucial.
Existing Game Classification System
Leading game ceremonies presently include award types recognizing Action, Action/Adventure, RPG experiences, Fighting, Sim/Strategy, plus athletic and racing experiences. Collectively, these award types actually cover a lot of ground, making space possible for numerous titles.
Not so for logic-based experiences. No appropriate category exists to put them. Think about these recent excellent titles, each quite distinct: building puzzles of one title, intense tile-matching of another game, and the sweetly sociological logic puzzles in another game. What category would fit them among existing types? Nowhere, that’s where.
Acknowledgment Issues
There are dozens outstanding logic titles published annually that have no home at major award shows, except when they manage to fit award groups including Handheld titles, VR/AR Game, or the extremely competitive independent game categories.
- An iconic brain-teaser wasn’t nominated in any category that year
- A different innovative game missed out that year
- Well-received sorting experience got ignored in 2021
- Only a few logic titles scraped into small studio or handheld classifications
Importance of Logic Titles
Commonly they're compact experiences, but the art in brain-teasers holds tremendous importance. Famous handheld logic titles count as most engaged experiences globally maintaining this status for over a decade.
The famous puzzle experience challenges famous sandbox experiences competing to become highest-selling title ever; it additionally competes as greatest title ever. Puzzle games are foundational for gaming as medium, and they are in conversation with diverse game types.
The Solution and Justification
Brain-teasers wouldn't encounter this problem. One could readily select five nominees interesting, varied, worthy titles annually without trouble — perhaps, with difficulty, because you’d have to leave numerous deserving experiences.
Restating the point, these are games without proper classification in important events. Puzzle game makers function at the demanding boundary game development, developing some of most fundamental forms of gaming itself. Just like film action specialists, they merit acknowledgment. We shouldn't delay decades.
