As any major honors show approaches, you'll find an outcry to include fresh award types to recognize underappreciated efforts and satisfy the spirits of enthusiasts who have specialized interests.
Another commentator has already made advocating for terror-themed awards. That would rule. Equally deserving are board games, this being a dedicated supporter's campaign. However, I must insist when I prioritize since similar to dedicated enthusiasts, I possess a compelling case for why my demand remains most pressing and significant. This is the request: It's essential to create a category for puzzle games.
Categorizing Game Types
Organizing artistic expressions isn't exact; opinions vary greatly, and typically spark debates and end in fuzzy definitions. There’s a reason film award organizations don’t do it. But it is a necessary evil for the industry of interactive entertainment, that demonstrate such variety it's challenging to consider them as a single art form.
For comprehensive acknowledgment of interactive entertainment excellence to receive acknowledgment, while allowing diverse titles to receive proper recognition, specific award classifications remain vital.
Present Award Structure
Leading game ceremonies presently include classifications covering Action-oriented games, Adventure-action titles, Role-Playing, Combat games, Sim/Strategy, plus athletic and racing experiences. Between them, these classifications successfully include a lot of ground, making space possible accommodating various experiences.
Different situation exists for puzzle games. No appropriate category exists to accommodate them. Examine these examples from outstanding current releases, each quite distinct: structural challenges of one title, fast-paced pattern recognition of another game, thought-provoking social scenarios of a third title. Which classification works among existing types? Unfortunately, nowhere.
The Representation Problem
Numerous examples exist of brilliant puzzle games released every year without proper recognition at major award shows, except when they manage to fit award groups including Mobile Game, VR/AR Game, and the highly challenging independent game categories.
- A renowned logic title got overlooked in any category during that awards season
- A different innovative game received no nominations in 2019
- Well-received sorting experience got ignored in 2021
- Just some puzzle games barely qualified for independent or mobile categories
Value of Brain-Teasers
These are often small games, however the design in brain-teasers is of massive significance. Famous handheld logic titles count as the most-played games globally and have been for an extended period.
The legendary block-stacking game rivals famous sandbox experiences for the title of highest-selling title ever; it’s also in the running 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
Brain-teasers wouldn't encounter such difficulty. It would be easy to populate five nominees interesting, varied, worthy titles every year with ease — or rather, with difficulty, since numerous excellent so many good games out.
To emphasize again, these represent titles lacking appropriate categories during prominent ceremonies. Puzzle game makers function at the challenging frontier of video game design, producing among most fundamental forms of the video game form. Comparable to movie stunt professionals, they deserve recognition. Let’s not keep them waiting decades.
