Each time a major prize-giving event draws close, one notices a demand for introducing of new categories to acknowledge underappreciated efforts and satisfy the hearts of enthusiasts who have specialized interests.
My colleague has already made for a horror game category. That would rule. Equally deserving are strategy board titles, which is a dedicated supporter's campaign. Yet I need to apologize in advance if I try to elbow in front because like all dedicated enthusiasts, I have a cast-iron argument for why my demand stands as crucial and important of all. Here's the proposal: We need a category for puzzle games.
Organizing Gaming Categories
Classifying creative works is not a science; opinions vary greatly, and inevitably spark debates concluding with vague boundaries. It's understandable that movie academies avoid this approach. However, it represents a necessary evil for the industry of interactive entertainment, showing incredible range they barely qualify a single creative category.
To recognize the complete range of interactive entertainment excellence to receive acknowledgment, and to ensure all game types to have a chance for representation, genre categories are essential.
Present Award Structure
The major gaming awards offer these genre categories for Action, Action/Adventure, Role-Playing, Fighting, Simulation and strategy titles, and Sports/Racing games. Together, these classifications actually cover a lot of ground, allowing placement for numerous titles.
Not so for puzzle games. There’s simply nowhere to accommodate them. Examine these examples from this year’s best games, showing diverse approaches: structural challenges in a particular game, fast-paced pattern recognition of another game, thought-provoking social scenarios of a third title. Where could they possibly go between these six categories? Unfortunately, nowhere.
Recognition Challenges
There are dozens of brilliant puzzle games published annually that have no home during gaming ceremonies, unless they happen to qualify award groups including Mobile Game, Virtual reality experiences, and the highly challenging Indie races.
- An iconic brain-teaser received no recognition for anything in 2014
- Another imaginative release missed out that year
- Well-received sorting experience received no acknowledgment in 2021
- Just some brain-teasers scraped into small studio or handheld classifications
Importance of Logic Titles
These are often small games, yet the craft behind logic titles holds tremendous importance. Well-known matching games rank among the most-played games worldwide maintaining this status for over a decade.
The iconic tile-matching title competes with popular creative games claiming status as best-selling game of all time; it’s also in the running as greatest title ever. Logic titles represent cornerstones to the art of video games, and they are in conversation across multiple categories.
Recommendation and Reasoning
Brain-teasers wouldn't encounter such difficulty. One could readily select a field of five with fascinating, diverse, deserving games each ceremony simply — or rather, with difficulty, given the need to exclude so many good games out.
To emphasize again, these represent titles without proper classification during prominent ceremonies. Puzzle game makers operate at the challenging frontier game development, developing some of the purest expressions of gaming itself. Just like cinema stunt performers, they deserve recognition. Let’s not keep them waiting generations.
