As any prominent awards ceremony nears, you'll find a demand for the addition additional classifications to recognize overlooked contributions and delight the passions of followers dedicated to specific genres.
My colleague previously argued supporting a scary games classification. That would be fantastic. Equally deserving are board games, this being someone's personal cause. Yet I need to apologize in advance for pushing forward since similar to dedicated enthusiasts, I have a cast-iron argument backing this proposal remains most pressing and significant. Here's the proposal: It's essential to create a category for puzzle games.
The Genre Classification Challenge
Classifying creative works is not a science; it’s very subjective, and it will always spark debates resulting in unclear classifications. There’s a reason cinema institutions steer clear of genre categories. Yet it remains a necessary evil within the realm of video games, that demonstrate such variety they hardly constitute one unified medium.
To recognize the complete range of achievement in video games to gain proper attention, and to ensure all game types to have a chance for representation, genre categories are essential.
Current Gaming Award Categories
The major gaming awards offer these genre categories for Action, Action/Adventure, RPG experiences, Fighting, Sim/Strategy, plus athletic and racing experiences. Collectively, these award types successfully include many game types, making space possible accommodating various experiences.
This doesn't apply to logic-based experiences. No suitable classification appears to accommodate them. Consider three of outstanding current releases, showing diverse approaches: the architectural riddles of one title, fast-paced pattern recognition from another release, thought-provoking social scenarios from additional release. Which classification works between these six categories? Simply put, no category fits.
Recognition Challenges
There are dozens of brilliant puzzle games released every year lacking appropriate categories at major award shows, if they accidentally match for categories like Handheld titles, VR/AR Game, and the highly challenging Indie races.
- One classic puzzle game got overlooked for anything during that awards season
- A different innovative game received no nominations in 2019
- Popular arranging title got ignored recently
- Just some brain-teasers managed to sneak into independent or mobile categories
Importance of Logic Titles
Frequently they represent small games, however the design in brain-teasers carries substantial weight. Famous handheld logic titles rank among the most-played games globally maintaining this status for an extended period.
The iconic tile-matching title competes with famous sandbox experiences for the title of best-selling game of all time; it also contends for best game of all time. Puzzle games are foundational to the art of video games, while interacting with diverse game types.
The Solution and Justification
Logic titles wouldn't face this problem. It would be easy to populate a field of five with fascinating, diverse, deserving games each ceremony simply — perhaps, with difficulty, given the need to exclude so many good games out.
And to reiterate, these represent titles without proper classification during prominent ceremonies. Logic title developers function at the demanding boundary interactive creation, creating some of most fundamental forms of the video game form. Similar to movie stunt professionals, they merit acknowledgment. We shouldn't delay 35 years.
