Each time a significant honors show approaches, there’s always a clamor to include fresh award types to honor overlooked contributions and satisfy the passions of fans who have specialized interests.
Another commentator made the case supporting a scary games classification. That would rule. So would board games, this being a dedicated supporter's campaign. However, I must insist for pushing forward because like all dedicated enthusiasts, I have a cast-iron argument backing this proposal remains most pressing and important of all. This is the request: We need a category for puzzle games.
Organizing Gaming Categories
Classifying creative works defies precise measurement; it’s very subjective, and inevitably generate discussions concluding with vague boundaries. There’s a reason cinema institutions avoid this approach. But it is an essential concession within the realm of video games, which are so diverse it's challenging to consider them as a single art form.
To recognize the complete range of gaming accomplishments to be recognized, and for games of all stripes to have a chance for representation, genre categories are essential.
Present Award Structure
Prominent interactive entertainment events currently feature genre categories for Action, Adventure-action titles, Role-Playing, Fighting, Sim/Strategy, and Sports/Racing games. Collectively, these six categories actually cover numerous genres, and you can find room accommodating various experiences.
Not so for puzzle games. There’s simply nowhere for their placement. Consider three of this year’s best games, all very different: the architectural riddles from a specific release, the pulse-pounding block-matching in a different title, thought-provoking social scenarios from additional release. Which classification works within current classifications? Nowhere, that’s where.
Acknowledgment Issues
Numerous examples exist excellent brain-teasers launched regularly without proper recognition at major award shows, except when they manage to fit award groups including Handheld titles, VR/AR Game, or the intensely contested Indie races.
- An iconic brain-teaser got overlooked in any category during that awards season
- Another creative title was excluded in 2019
- Popular arranging title got ignored in 2021
- Limited numbers of puzzle games scraped into independent or mobile categories
Value of Brain-Teasers
These are often modest productions, yet the craft in brain-teasers is of massive significance. Famous handheld logic titles count as most engaged experiences worldwide and have been for an extended period.
The famous puzzle experience rivals well-known building titles competing to become highest-selling title ever; it also contends for top gaming experience. Puzzle games are foundational within interactive entertainment, and they are in conversation with diverse game types.
Proposal and Rationale
Puzzle games wouldn’t have such difficulty. One could readily select five nominees with fascinating, diverse, deserving games annually without trouble — perhaps, with difficulty, because you’d have to leave many worthy titles.
And to reiterate, these represent titles lacking appropriate categories during prominent ceremonies. Logic title developers are working at the demanding boundary game development, creating some of most fundamental forms of the video game form. Similar to cinema stunt performers, they merit acknowledgment. Let’s not keep them waiting 35 years.
