Whenever a prominent prize-giving event approaches, one notices a demand to include fresh award types to recognize underappreciated efforts and satisfy the spirits of followers dedicated to specific genres.
My colleague made the case supporting a scary games classification. It would be amazing. So would tabletop games, this being someone's personal cause. However, I must insist if I try to elbow in front because like all single-minded supporters, I possess a compelling case supporting my request is the most urgent and significant. This is the request: It's essential to create a category for puzzle games.
Organizing Gaming Categories
Categorizing art by genre isn't exact; opinions vary greatly, and it will always generate discussions and end in fuzzy definitions. It's understandable that film award organizations don’t do it. However, it represents an essential concession within the realm of interactive entertainment, which are so diverse they hardly constitute a single creative category.
For comprehensive acknowledgment of interactive entertainment excellence to gain proper attention, while allowing diverse titles to receive proper recognition, genre categories are essential.
Existing Game Classification System
Prominent interactive entertainment events presently include award types recognizing Action, Action/Adventure, RPG experiences, Combat games, Sim/Strategy, and Sports/Racing games. Between them, 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. Examine these examples from this year’s best games, showing diverse approaches: structural challenges of one title, intense tile-matching from another release, thought-provoking social scenarios in another game. What category would fit them between these six categories? Unfortunately, nowhere.
Acknowledgment Issues
Numerous examples exist outstanding logic titles published annually lacking appropriate categories at major award shows, if they accidentally match for categories like Handheld titles, Virtual reality experiences, and the highly challenging independent game categories.
- A renowned logic title got overlooked in any category in 2014
- Another imaginative release was excluded during that ceremony
- A beloved organization game got ignored recently
- Limited numbers of puzzle games scraped into small studio or handheld classifications
Value of Brain-Teasers
Commonly they're small games, but the art in brain-teasers holds tremendous importance. Well-known matching games count as the most-played games worldwide continuing this trend for over a decade.
The famous puzzle experience competes with famous sandbox experiences claiming status as most purchased experience; it’s also in the running for top gaming experience. Brain-teasers form essential building blocks for gaming as medium, and engaging across multiple categories.
The Solution and Justification
Brain-teasers wouldn't encounter such difficulty. It would be easy to populate a field of five interesting, varied, worthy titles annually without trouble — perhaps, with difficulty, because you’d have to leave so many good games out.
And to reiterate, these represent titles that otherwise have no home during prominent ceremonies. Puzzle game makers are working at the demanding boundary interactive creation, producing among most fundamental forms within interactive entertainment. Comparable to cinema stunt performers, they merit acknowledgment. Let’s not keep them waiting generations.
