Each time a significant awards ceremony draws close, you'll find a demand to include fresh award types to honor unsung work and fill the spirits of fans with niche passions.
Another commentator previously argued advocating for terror-themed awards. It would be amazing. Equally deserving are tabletop games, this being a passionate advocate's mission. However, I must insist when I prioritize because like all blinkered fanatics, I have a cast-iron argument backing this proposal remains most pressing and important of all. The demand is this: We need a category for puzzle games.
Organizing Gaming Categories
Organizing artistic expressions defies precise measurement; opinions vary greatly, and typically spark debates concluding with vague boundaries. This explains why movie academies avoid this approach. But it is a necessary evil for the industry of gaming, that demonstrate such variety they barely qualify a single creative category.
To recognize the complete range of achievement in video games to receive acknowledgment, and to ensure all game types to compete fairly, specific award classifications remain vital.
Existing Game Classification System
The major gaming awards presently include classifications covering Action, Adventure-action titles, RPG experiences, Fighting, Simulation and strategy titles, plus athletic and racing experiences. Collectively, these classifications actually cover numerous genres, and you can find room for numerous titles.
This doesn't apply to logic-based experiences. No suitable classification appears to put them. Examine these examples from outstanding current releases, all very different: the architectural riddles from a specific release, the pulse-pounding block-matching of another game, engaging interpersonal challenges from additional release. Which classification works within current classifications? Unfortunately, nowhere.
Acknowledgment Issues
Many instances occur excellent brain-teasers published annually that have no home at major award shows, unless they happen to qualify award groups including Handheld titles, VR/AR Game, or the extremely competitive independent game categories.
- One classic puzzle game got overlooked in any category that year
- A different innovative game received no nominations during that ceremony
- A beloved organization game was overlooked in 2021
- Only a few logic titles managed to sneak into independent or mobile categories
Value of Brain-Teasers
These are often small games, yet the craft of the puzzle game carries substantial weight. Well-known matching games count as most engaged experiences in the world and have been for over a decade.
The iconic tile-matching title rivals popular creative games claiming status as best-selling game of all time; it also contends for best game of all time. Brain-teasers form essential building blocks to the art of video games, and engaging with diverse game types.
Recommendation and Reasoning
Puzzle games wouldn’t have such difficulty. One could readily select five nominees with fascinating, diverse, deserving games annually without trouble — or rather, with difficulty, because you’d have to leave many worthy titles.
Restating the point, these represent titles without proper classification in important events. Puzzle game makers operate at the challenging frontier of video game design, creating some of the purest expressions of the video game form. Similar to movie stunt professionals, they deserve recognition. Let’s not keep them waiting generations.
