Whenever a significant prize-giving event approaches, one notices a demand to include of new categories to acknowledge underappreciated efforts and satisfy the hearts of fans dedicated to specific genres.
My colleague made the case for a horror game category. That would rule. So would strategy board titles, representing a passionate advocate's mission. Yet I need to apologize in advance if I try to elbow in front because like all blinkered fanatics, I possess a compelling case supporting my request stands as crucial and significant. Here's the proposal: We need an award type for logic-based games.
Organizing Gaming Categories
Classifying creative works is not a science; opinions vary greatly, and inevitably start arguments concluding with vague boundaries. This explains why movie academies avoid this approach. But it is a necessary evil within the realm of video games, that demonstrate such variety they hardly constitute as a single art form.
For comprehensive acknowledgment of gaming accomplishments to be recognized, while allowing diverse titles to receive proper recognition, classification by type becomes crucial.
Existing Game Classification System
Prominent interactive entertainment events offer these classifications covering Action, Action/Adventure, Role-Playing, Fighting, Sim/Strategy, plus athletic and racing experiences. Between them, these six categories actually cover a lot of ground, making space possible for most games within them.
Not so for brain-teasing titles. No appropriate category exists for their placement. Think about these this year’s best games, showing diverse approaches: building puzzles from a specific release, the pulse-pounding block-matching in a different title, and the sweetly sociological logic puzzles in another game. Which classification works between these six categories? Unfortunately, nowhere.
The Representation Problem
Many instances occur outstanding logic titles released every year that have no home during gaming ceremonies, unless they happen to qualify classification types such as Handheld titles, VR/AR Game, and the highly challenging Indie races.
- A renowned logic title received no recognition in any category during that awards season
- Another imaginative release missed out in 2019
- Popular arranging title got ignored that year
- Just some brain-teasers scraped into small studio or handheld classifications
Significance of Puzzle Games
Frequently they represent modest productions, however the design behind logic titles carries substantial weight. Famous handheld logic titles stand as most engaged experiences worldwide continuing this trend for many years.
The iconic tile-matching title challenges famous sandbox experiences claiming status as best-selling game of all time; it also contends for best game of all time. Brain-teasers form essential building blocks within interactive entertainment, and they are in conversation with almost every other genre.
Proposal and Rationale
Puzzle games wouldn’t have such difficulty. It would be easy to populate multiple candidates with fascinating, diverse, deserving games every year with ease — or rather, with difficulty, given the need to exclude many worthy titles.
And to reiterate, these include experiences that otherwise have no home in important events. Logic title developers operate at the demanding boundary game development, developing some of most fundamental forms of gaming itself. Comparable to movie stunt professionals, they merit acknowledgment. Don't make them wait generations.
