As any significant awards ceremony nears, one notices a demand for introducing fresh award types to recognize overlooked contributions and delight the passions of enthusiasts with niche passions.
A fellow writer made the case supporting a scary games classification. That would be fantastic. Equally deserving are tabletop games, which is a passionate advocate's mission. Yet I need to apologize in advance if I try to elbow in front because like all single-minded supporters, I possess a compelling case backing this proposal stands as crucial and important of all. Here's the proposal: It's essential to create a classification for brain-teasing titles.
The Genre Classification Challenge
Classifying creative works isn't exact; it remains highly personal, and inevitably start arguments and end in fuzzy definitions. This explains why cinema institutions avoid this approach. However, it represents an unavoidable compromise within the realm of interactive entertainment, which are so diverse it's challenging to consider them as a single art form.
For the full spectrum of interactive entertainment excellence to gain proper attention, and for games of all stripes to compete fairly, classification by type becomes crucial.
Current Gaming Award Categories
Prominent interactive entertainment events presently include genre categories for Action, Action/Adventure, RPG experiences, Fighting, Simulation and strategy titles, plus athletic and racing experiences. Between them, these six categories successfully include numerous genres, and you can find room for most games within them.
This doesn't apply to puzzle games. No appropriate category exists to accommodate them. Consider three of recent excellent titles, each quite distinct: building puzzles from a specific release, fast-paced pattern recognition from another release, and the sweetly sociological logic puzzles from additional release. What category would fit them between these six categories? Unfortunately, nowhere.
Acknowledgment Issues
There are dozens excellent brain-teasers launched regularly that have no home at major award shows, unless they happen to qualify for categories like Handheld titles, VR/AR Game, or the intensely contested small studio competitions.
- One classic puzzle game wasn’t nominated in any category during that awards season
- A different innovative game missed out in 2019
- A beloved organization game was overlooked in 2021
- Limited numbers of puzzle games scraped into niche award types
Importance of Logic Titles
These are often compact experiences, yet the craft of the puzzle game is of massive significance. Iconic mobile puzzle games stand as most engaged experiences worldwide continuing this trend for an extended period.
The famous puzzle experience rivals famous sandbox experiences competing to become highest-selling title ever; it’s also in the running as greatest title ever. Brain-teasers form essential building blocks to the art of video games, and they are in conversation with almost every other genre.
Recommendation and Reasoning
Brain-teasers wouldn't encounter such difficulty. One could readily select multiple candidates engaging, different, qualified experiences each ceremony simply — or rather, with difficulty, since numerous excellent many worthy titles.
And to reiterate, these are games lacking appropriate categories during prominent ceremonies. Puzzle game makers are working at the challenging frontier of video game design, producing among essential manifestations of gaming itself. Comparable to cinema stunt performers, they deserve recognition. We shouldn't delay 35 years.
