Whenever a prominent prize-giving event approaches, you'll find a clamor for introducing additional classifications to acknowledge underappreciated efforts and satisfy the spirits of followers who have specialized interests.
Another commentator made the case for a horror game category. It would be amazing. The same goes for strategy board titles, representing someone's personal cause. But they will have to forgive me for pushing forward just as with other dedicated enthusiasts, I possess a compelling case for why my demand stands as crucial above others. This is the request: It's essential to create an award type for logic-based games.
The Genre Classification Challenge
Organizing artistic expressions defies precise measurement; it remains highly personal, and inevitably generate discussions and end in fuzzy definitions. There’s a reason film award organizations don’t do it. Yet it remains a necessary evil for the industry of video games, which are so diverse it's challenging to consider them one unified medium.
To recognize the complete range of achievement in video games to gain proper attention, and for games of all stripes to compete fairly, specific award classifications remain vital.
Current Gaming Award Categories
Prominent interactive entertainment events currently feature classifications covering Action-oriented games, Action/Adventure, Role-Playing, Combat games, Simulation and strategy titles, and Sports/Racing games. Collectively, these classifications actually cover numerous genres, allowing placement for most games within them.
Not so for puzzle games. No suitable classification appears to put them. Examine these examples from this year’s best games, each quite distinct: building puzzles of one title, the pulse-pounding block-matching from another release, and the sweetly sociological logic puzzles from additional release. What category would fit them between these six categories? Simply put, no category fits.
Acknowledgment Issues
Many instances occur excellent brain-teasers published annually that have no home at major award shows, except when they manage to fit award groups including Mobile Game, VR/AR Game, or the intensely contested small studio competitions.
- One classic puzzle game wasn’t nominated completely during that awards season
- A different innovative game missed out in 2019
- Well-received sorting experience received no acknowledgment in 2021
- Only a few brain-teasers managed to sneak into small studio or handheld classifications
Significance of Puzzle Games
Commonly they're small games, however the design in brain-teasers carries substantial weight. Iconic mobile puzzle games count as the most-played games globally maintaining this status for many years.
The iconic tile-matching title competes with famous sandbox experiences claiming status as best-selling game of all time; it also contends for best game of all time. Brain-teasers form essential building blocks to the art of video games, and engaging across multiple categories.
The Solution and Justification
Logic titles wouldn't face such difficulty. You could fill five nominees with fascinating, diverse, deserving games annually without trouble — perhaps, with difficulty, given the need to exclude numerous deserving experiences.
Restating the point, these are games lacking appropriate categories at major gaming awards. Logic title developers function at the challenging frontier game development, creating some of essential manifestations of gaming itself. Similar to movie stunt professionals, they warrant appreciation. We shouldn't delay decades.
