Each time a prominent prize-giving event nears, you'll find a clamor to include fresh award types to honor underappreciated efforts and fill the passions of enthusiasts who have specialized interests.
My colleague has already made advocating for terror-themed awards. That would rule. So would tabletop games, this being someone's personal cause. Yet I need to apologize in advance if I try to elbow in front because like all single-minded supporters, there's a strong justification supporting my request is the most urgent and important of all. This is the request: It's essential to create a category for puzzle games.
Organizing Gaming Categories
Categorizing art by genre defies precise measurement; opinions vary greatly, and typically spark debates and end in fuzzy definitions. It's understandable that film award organizations don’t do it. But it is an unavoidable compromise within the realm of video games, which are so diverse they hardly constitute one unified medium.
To recognize the complete range of gaming accomplishments to be recognized, and for games of all stripes to compete fairly, genre categories are essential.
Current Gaming Award Categories
Leading game ceremonies currently feature award types recognizing Action, Adventure-action titles, RPG experiences, Combat games, Sim/Strategy, plus athletic and racing experiences. Collectively, these six categories effectively encompass a lot of ground, allowing placement for most games within them.
Not so for logic-based experiences. No suitable classification appears to accommodate them. Consider three of this year’s best games, showing diverse approaches: the architectural riddles in a particular game, intense tile-matching from another release, thought-provoking social scenarios from additional release. What category would fit them among existing types? Unfortunately, nowhere.
Acknowledgment Issues
Many instances occur outstanding logic titles released every year that have no home at major award shows, unless they happen to qualify classification types such as Handheld titles, Virtual reality experiences, or the extremely competitive small studio competitions.
- One classic puzzle game received no recognition completely that year
- Another imaginative release received no nominations that year
- A beloved organization game received no acknowledgment that year
- Limited numbers of logic titles scraped into small studio or handheld classifications
Importance of Logic Titles
Commonly they're compact experiences, however the design of the puzzle game is of massive significance. Famous handheld logic titles count as the most-played games in the world continuing this trend for an extended period.
The iconic tile-matching title rivals well-known building titles for the title of highest-selling title ever; it also contends as greatest title ever. Logic titles represent cornerstones within interactive entertainment, and engaging with diverse game types.
The Solution and Justification
Puzzle games wouldn’t have such difficulty. You could fill a field of five engaging, different, qualified experiences each ceremony simply — perhaps, with difficulty, because you’d have to leave numerous deserving experiences.
And to reiterate, these include experiences without proper classification at major gaming awards. Logic title developers are working at the challenging frontier game development, developing some of the purest expressions of gaming itself. Similar to cinema stunt performers, they deserve recognition. We shouldn't delay decades.
