As any prominent awards ceremony nears, there’s always a clamor for introducing fresh award types to recognize underappreciated efforts and satisfy the spirits of followers with niche passions.
A fellow writer previously argued supporting a scary games classification. That would be fantastic. Equally deserving are tabletop games, representing a passionate advocate's mission. But they will have to forgive me if I try to elbow in front since similar to blinkered fanatics, I have a cast-iron argument supporting my request stands as crucial and significant. Here's the proposal: We need a category for puzzle games.
Categorizing Game Types
Organizing artistic expressions is not a science; it’s very subjective, and typically start arguments concluding with vague boundaries. There’s a reason cinema institutions avoid this approach. However, it represents a necessary evil within the realm of gaming, which are so diverse it's challenging to consider them a single creative category.
For the full spectrum of interactive entertainment excellence to be recognized, and to ensure all game types to receive proper recognition, genre categories are essential.
Present Award Structure
The major gaming awards currently feature genre categories for Action-oriented games, Action/Adventure, RPG experiences, Combat games, Sim/Strategy, and Sports/Racing games. Together, these award types actually cover numerous genres, making space possible for numerous titles.
Not so for logic-based experiences. There’s simply nowhere for their placement. Consider three of recent excellent titles, each quite distinct: the architectural riddles from a specific release, fast-paced pattern recognition in a different title, thought-provoking social scenarios from additional release. What category would fit them between these six categories? Unfortunately, nowhere.
Recognition Challenges
Numerous examples exist of brilliant puzzle games published annually without proper recognition at major award shows, unless they happen to qualify for categories like Mobile Game, Virtual reality experiences, or the extremely competitive Indie races.
- A renowned logic title got overlooked completely in 2014
- Another imaginative release was excluded that year
- Well-received sorting experience received no acknowledgment that year
- Limited numbers of puzzle games managed to sneak into niche award types
Significance of Puzzle Games
These are often compact experiences, however the design behind logic titles holds tremendous importance. Well-known matching games count as the most-played games in the world and have been for over a decade.
The famous puzzle experience challenges well-known building titles claiming status as highest-selling title ever; it’s also in the running for best game of all time. Logic titles represent cornerstones to the art of video games, while interacting with diverse game types.
Proposal and Rationale
Puzzle games wouldn’t have that issue. It would be easy to populate a field of five engaging, different, qualified experiences every year with ease — or rather, with difficulty, because you’d have to leave so many good games out.
And to reiterate, these are games lacking appropriate categories at major gaming awards. Logic title developers function at the challenging frontier of video game design, producing among essential manifestations of gaming itself. Just like cinema stunt performers, they deserve recognition. Don't make them wait 35 years.
