Whenever a major honors show draws close, there’s always a demand for the addition fresh award types to acknowledge overlooked contributions and delight the passions of followers who have specialized interests.
My colleague made the case supporting a scary games classification. It would be amazing. So would strategy board titles, representing a passionate advocate's mission. Yet I need to apologize in advance for pushing forward just as with other dedicated enthusiasts, there's a strong justification backing this proposal remains most pressing and significant. The demand is this: We need a category for puzzle games.
Categorizing Game Types
Categorizing art by genre is not a science; it’s very subjective, and typically spark debates and end in fuzzy definitions. This explains why cinema institutions don’t do it. Yet it remains an essential concession in the world of video games, which are so diverse they barely qualify as a single art form.
For comprehensive acknowledgment of achievement in video games to gain proper attention, and for games of all stripes to compete fairly, specific award classifications remain vital.
Current Gaming Award Categories
The major gaming awards currently feature genre categories for Action-oriented games, Adventure-action titles, RPG experiences, Combat games, Sim/Strategy, and Sports/Racing games. Collectively, these six categories effectively encompass a lot of ground, making space possible accommodating various experiences.
This doesn't apply to brain-teasing titles. There’s simply nowhere for their placement. Consider three of recent excellent titles, each quite distinct: the architectural riddles in a particular game, the pulse-pounding block-matching of another game, thought-provoking social scenarios of a third title. What category would fit them among existing types? Unfortunately, nowhere.
Acknowledgment Issues
There are dozens of brilliant puzzle games released every year that have no home in entertainment awards, unless they happen to qualify classification types such as Handheld titles, VR/AR Game, or the extremely competitive small studio competitions.
- An iconic brain-teaser got overlooked in any category during that awards season
- Another creative title missed out in 2019
- A beloved organization game was overlooked that year
- Just some puzzle games scraped into niche award types
Value of Brain-Teasers
Commonly they're small games, but the art in brain-teasers carries substantial weight. Iconic mobile puzzle games stand as most popular titles in the world maintaining this status for an extended period.
The famous puzzle experience rivals popular creative games competing to become highest-selling title ever; it also contends for best game of all time. Brain-teasers form essential building blocks for gaming as medium, and engaging with diverse game types.
Recommendation and Reasoning
Brain-teasers wouldn't encounter such difficulty. One could readily select a field of five interesting, varied, worthy titles every year with ease — or rather, with difficulty, given the need to exclude so many good games out.
To emphasize again, these represent titles without proper classification at major gaming awards. Brain-teaser creators are working at the challenging frontier interactive creation, creating some of most fundamental forms within interactive entertainment. Just like movie stunt professionals, they deserve recognition. Let’s not keep them waiting generations.
