As any prominent awards ceremony approaches, one notices a clamor for introducing of new categories to honor overlooked contributions and delight the passions of enthusiasts who have specialized interests.
Another commentator made the case for a horror game category. That would rule. Equally deserving are tabletop games, representing someone's personal cause. But they will have to forgive me when I prioritize since similar to blinkered fanatics, I have a cast-iron argument supporting my request remains most pressing and significant. The demand is this: There should be a category for puzzle games.
Organizing Gaming Categories
Categorizing art by genre is not a science; opinions vary greatly, and inevitably start arguments resulting in unclear classifications. This explains why movie academies avoid this approach. Yet it remains an unavoidable compromise within the realm of video games, showing incredible range they hardly constitute one unified medium.
To recognize the complete range of achievement in video games to be recognized, and for games of all stripes to compete fairly, specific award classifications remain vital.
Existing Game Classification System
Leading game ceremonies currently feature award types recognizing Action, Action/Adventure, Role-Playing, Combat games, Sim/Strategy, and Sports/Racing games. Between them, these six categories successfully include numerous genres, and you can find room for most games within them.
Different situation exists for brain-teasing titles. No appropriate category exists to accommodate them. Think about these this year’s best games, all very different: building puzzles in a particular game, intense tile-matching of another game, thought-provoking social scenarios from additional release. Where could they possibly go between these six categories? Nowhere, that’s where.
The Representation Problem
There are dozens excellent brain-teasers published annually that have no home during gaming ceremonies, if they accidentally match award groups including Handheld titles, VR/AR Game, or the extremely competitive small studio competitions.
- One classic puzzle game wasn’t nominated for anything during that awards season
- Another imaginative release missed out that year
- Well-received sorting experience was overlooked in 2021
- Only a few brain-teasers barely qualified for small studio or handheld classifications
Value of Brain-Teasers
Frequently they represent compact experiences, however the design behind logic titles holds tremendous importance. Famous handheld logic titles count as the most-played games in the world maintaining this status for many years.
The legendary block-stacking game challenges well-known building titles claiming status as most purchased experience; it additionally competes for best game of all time. Brain-teasers form essential building blocks to the art of video games, while interacting across multiple categories.
Recommendation and Reasoning
Puzzle games wouldn’t have this problem. One could readily select five nominees interesting, varied, worthy titles annually without trouble — actually, with challenge, given the need to exclude so many good games out.
And to reiterate, these represent titles lacking appropriate categories at major gaming awards. Brain-teaser creators function at the challenging frontier of video game design, developing some of most fundamental forms of gaming itself. Similar to cinema stunt performers, they deserve recognition. Don't make them wait decades.
