As any prominent prize-giving event nears, you'll find a demand to include of new categories to acknowledge overlooked contributions and delight the passions of followers dedicated to specific genres.
A fellow writer has already made supporting a scary games classification. It would be amazing. Equally deserving are strategy board titles, which is someone's personal cause. But they will have to forgive me when I prioritize because like all dedicated enthusiasts, there's a strong justification supporting my request remains most pressing and important of all. This is the request: It's essential to create a category for puzzle games.
Categorizing Game Types
Categorizing art by genre is not a science; it’s very subjective, and typically spark debates concluding with vague boundaries. There’s a reason movie academies don’t do it. Yet it remains an essential concession within the realm of video games, showing incredible range they barely qualify a single creative category.
To recognize the complete range of achievement in video games to be recognized, and to ensure all game types to have a chance for representation, specific award classifications remain vital.
Present Award Structure
Leading game ceremonies offer these genre categories for Action-oriented games, Action/Adventure, RPG experiences, Fighting, Sim/Strategy, and Sports/Racing games. Between them, these award types successfully include numerous genres, and you can find room for most games within them.
Not so for puzzle games. No appropriate category exists to accommodate them. Examine these examples from this year’s best games, all very different: structural challenges in a particular game, intense tile-matching from another release, and the sweetly sociological logic puzzles of a third title. Where could they possibly go between these six categories? Unfortunately, nowhere.
The Representation Problem
Many instances occur excellent brain-teasers launched regularly lacking appropriate categories at major award shows, unless they happen to qualify award groups including Mobile Game, Virtual reality experiences, or the extremely competitive small studio competitions.
- An iconic brain-teaser received no recognition completely in 2014
- Another creative title received no nominations in 2019
- A beloved organization game was overlooked recently
- Only a few logic titles managed to sneak into independent or mobile categories
Importance of Logic Titles
Frequently they represent compact experiences, yet the craft of the puzzle game holds tremendous importance. Well-known matching games rank among most engaged experiences in the world continuing this trend for over a decade.
The iconic tile-matching title competes with well-known building titles competing to become most purchased experience; it additionally competes for best game of all time. Puzzle games are foundational for gaming as medium, while interacting across multiple categories.
The Solution and Justification
Logic titles wouldn't face that issue. You could fill five nominees interesting, varied, worthy titles each ceremony simply — perhaps, with difficulty, given the need to exclude many worthy titles.
Restating the point, these are games that otherwise have no home at major gaming awards. Logic title developers function at the challenging frontier interactive creation, creating some of essential manifestations of gaming itself. Similar to movie stunt professionals, they deserve recognition. We shouldn't delay generations.
