Each time a significant prize-giving event nears, you'll find an outcry to include of new categories to recognize overlooked contributions and satisfy the hearts of followers who have specialized interests.
A fellow writer made the case for a horror game category. It would be amazing. So would strategy board titles, this being a passionate advocate's mission. However, I must insist if I try to elbow in front because like all dedicated enthusiasts, I have a cast-iron argument for why my demand stands as crucial and significant. This is the request: We need a category for puzzle games.
The Genre Classification Challenge
Organizing artistic expressions is not a science; it remains highly personal, and it will always start arguments concluding with vague boundaries. There’s a reason film award organizations steer clear of genre categories. However, it represents a necessary evil in the world of interactive entertainment, showing incredible range they barely qualify a single creative category.
For the full spectrum of interactive entertainment excellence to receive acknowledgment, and for games of all stripes to compete fairly, specific award classifications remain vital.
Present Award Structure
The major gaming awards presently include classifications covering Action, Action/Adventure, RPG experiences, Fighting, Sim/Strategy, and Sports/Racing games. Collectively, these classifications successfully include many game types, allowing placement accommodating various experiences.
This doesn't apply to brain-teasing titles. No appropriate category exists to accommodate them. Think about these this year’s best games, showing diverse approaches: the architectural riddles in a particular game, fast-paced pattern recognition from another release, thought-provoking social scenarios from additional release. Where could they possibly go between these six categories? Simply put, no category fits.
Acknowledgment Issues
Many instances occur outstanding logic titles launched regularly that have no home at major award shows, unless they happen to qualify award groups including Handheld titles, VR/AR Game, or the intensely contested Indie races.
- An iconic brain-teaser got overlooked for anything during that awards season
- Another creative title received no nominations that year
- Well-received sorting experience was overlooked recently
- Only a few brain-teasers scraped into small studio or handheld classifications
Significance of Puzzle Games
Frequently they represent modest productions, but the art of the puzzle game is of massive significance. Well-known matching games stand as most engaged experiences in the world and have been for over a decade.
The legendary block-stacking game competes with well-known building titles for the title of most purchased experience; it’s also in the running for best game of all time. Puzzle games are foundational to the art of video games, and engaging with almost every other genre.
Proposal and Rationale
Brain-teasers wouldn't encounter such difficulty. One could readily select a field of five with fascinating, diverse, deserving games every year with ease — actually, with challenge, given the need to exclude many worthy titles.
To emphasize again, these are games lacking appropriate categories in important events. Puzzle game makers operate at the challenging frontier interactive creation, developing some of most fundamental forms of gaming itself. Just like film action specialists, they deserve recognition. Don't make them wait 35 years.
