As any prominent awards ceremony nears, there’s always an outcry for the addition fresh award types to acknowledge unsung work and fill the passions of fans with niche passions.
My colleague made the case supporting a scary games classification. That would be fantastic. The same goes for tabletop games, this being a dedicated supporter's campaign. Yet I need to apologize in advance for pushing forward because like all blinkered fanatics, I possess a compelling case supporting my request is the most urgent above others. The demand is this: There should be an award type for logic-based games.
Categorizing Game Types
Organizing artistic expressions defies precise measurement; it remains highly personal, and it will always generate discussions resulting in unclear classifications. It's understandable that cinema institutions avoid this approach. But it is a necessary evil for the industry of gaming, which are so diverse it's challenging to consider them as a single art form.
To recognize the complete range of interactive entertainment excellence to receive acknowledgment, while allowing diverse titles to receive proper recognition, genre categories are essential.
Existing Game Classification System
Prominent interactive entertainment events offer these classifications covering Action-oriented games, Adventure-action titles, Role-Playing, Fighting, Sim/Strategy, and Sports/Racing games. Collectively, these award types actually cover many game types, and you can find room accommodating various experiences.
Different situation exists for puzzle games. No suitable classification appears to accommodate them. Think about these this year’s best games, showing diverse approaches: the architectural riddles from a specific release, intense tile-matching in a different title, and the sweetly sociological logic puzzles of a third title. What category would fit them between these six categories? Simply put, no category fits.
Acknowledgment Issues
There are dozens of brilliant puzzle games launched regularly without proper recognition during gaming ceremonies, if they accidentally match for categories like Mobile Game, Virtual reality experiences, or the extremely competitive small studio competitions.
- An iconic brain-teaser received no recognition in any category during that awards season
- Another imaginative release was excluded during that ceremony
- Popular arranging title was overlooked recently
- Only a few logic titles barely qualified for independent or mobile categories
Significance of Puzzle Games
Commonly they're compact experiences, but the art behind logic titles holds tremendous importance. Well-known matching games stand as the most-played games worldwide maintaining this status for an extended period.
The iconic tile-matching title competes with famous sandbox experiences for the title of best-selling game of all time; it additionally competes for best game of all time. Logic titles represent cornerstones for gaming as medium, and engaging across multiple categories.
Proposal and Rationale
Puzzle games wouldn’t have that issue. You could fill multiple candidates with fascinating, diverse, deserving games every year with ease — or rather, with difficulty, since numerous excellent so many good games out.
Restating the point, these represent titles that otherwise have no home during prominent ceremonies. Puzzle game makers operate at the demanding boundary game development, developing some of most fundamental forms within interactive entertainment. Just like cinema stunt performers, they merit acknowledgment. Let’s not keep them waiting generations.
