As any prominent honors show approaches, you'll find a demand for introducing of new categories to honor underappreciated efforts and delight the passions of enthusiasts dedicated to specific genres.
A fellow writer made the case supporting a scary games classification. That would rule. Equally deserving are board games, which is a dedicated supporter's campaign. But they will have to forgive me for pushing forward because like all single-minded supporters, there's a strong justification for why my demand stands as crucial and important of all. The demand is this: There should be an award type for logic-based games.
Organizing Gaming Categories
Organizing artistic expressions is not a science; opinions vary greatly, and inevitably start arguments resulting in unclear classifications. This explains why film award organizations don’t do it. Yet it remains a necessary evil for the industry of gaming, showing incredible range they hardly constitute as a single art form.
For comprehensive acknowledgment of interactive entertainment excellence to be recognized, and to ensure all game types to compete fairly, genre categories are essential.
Present Award Structure
Prominent interactive entertainment events currently feature award types recognizing Action, Adventure-action titles, Role-Playing, Combat games, Simulation and strategy titles, and Sports/Racing games. Together, these award types actually cover many game types, making space possible accommodating various experiences.
Not so for logic-based experiences. No appropriate category exists to accommodate them. Think about these recent excellent titles, all very different: the architectural riddles in a particular game, fast-paced pattern recognition from another release, and the sweetly sociological logic puzzles of a third title. What category would fit them among existing types? Unfortunately, nowhere.
Recognition Challenges
Many instances occur excellent brain-teasers launched regularly lacking appropriate categories in entertainment awards, unless they happen to qualify award groups including Mobile Game, VR/AR Game, and the highly challenging independent game categories.
- An iconic brain-teaser received no recognition completely in 2014
- Another creative title received no nominations that year
- Well-received sorting experience got ignored recently
- Only a few puzzle games scraped into independent or mobile categories
Significance of Puzzle Games
Frequently they represent modest productions, however the design behind logic titles holds tremendous importance. Iconic mobile puzzle games rank among most popular titles globally maintaining this status for over a decade.
The famous puzzle experience competes with well-known building titles claiming status as most purchased experience; it additionally competes for top gaming experience. Puzzle games are foundational for gaming as medium, and they are in conversation with diverse game types.
The Solution and Justification
Logic titles wouldn't face such difficulty. It would be easy to populate five nominees with fascinating, diverse, deserving games every year with ease — actually, with challenge, because you’d have to leave so many good games out.
Restating the point, these are games lacking appropriate categories during prominent ceremonies. Puzzle game makers operate at the hard edge of video game design, developing some of most fundamental forms of gaming itself. Comparable to movie stunt professionals, they deserve recognition. Let’s not keep them waiting 35 years.
