Whenever a significant prize-giving event draws close, one notices a clamor for introducing additional classifications to honor unsung work and fill the passions of followers dedicated to specific genres.
My colleague previously argued supporting a scary games classification. That would be fantastic. So would tabletop games, representing a dedicated supporter's campaign. However, I must insist if I try to elbow in front since similar to dedicated enthusiasts, I possess a compelling case backing this proposal stands as crucial and significant. The demand is this: We need a classification for brain-teasing titles.
Categorizing Game Types
Organizing artistic expressions is not a science; it’s very subjective, and inevitably start arguments and end in fuzzy definitions. There’s a reason movie academies avoid this approach. But it is an unavoidable compromise for the industry of video games, showing incredible range they barely qualify a single creative category.
For the full spectrum of gaming accomplishments to receive acknowledgment, and to ensure all game types to have a chance for representation, specific award classifications remain vital.
Current Gaming Award Categories
The major gaming awards currently feature award types recognizing Action, Adventure-action titles, Role-Playing, Combat games, Simulation and strategy titles, and Sports/Racing games. Collectively, these six categories successfully include many game types, and you can find room for most games within them.
Not so for brain-teasing titles. No appropriate category exists to accommodate them. Think about these this year’s best games, all very different: the architectural riddles from a specific release, intense tile-matching of another game, and the sweetly sociological logic puzzles in another game. Which classification works between these six categories? Nowhere, that’s where.
Acknowledgment Issues
Many instances occur outstanding logic titles published annually without proper recognition at major award shows, except when they manage to fit for categories like Mobile Game, VR/AR Game, or the intensely contested small studio competitions.
- One classic puzzle game got overlooked in any category in 2014
- Another imaginative release missed out that year
- Well-received sorting experience was overlooked that year
- Only a few brain-teasers managed to sneak into independent or mobile categories
Significance of Puzzle Games
Frequently they represent small games, yet the craft of the puzzle game carries substantial weight. Famous handheld logic titles count as most engaged experiences worldwide maintaining this status for over a decade.
The legendary block-stacking game competes with well-known building titles competing to become highest-selling title ever; it also contends for top gaming experience. Puzzle games are foundational within interactive entertainment, and engaging with almost every other genre.
Proposal and Rationale
Brain-teasers wouldn't encounter this problem. It would be easy to populate multiple candidates engaging, different, qualified experiences every year with ease — or rather, with difficulty, given the need to exclude numerous deserving experiences.
And to reiterate, these represent titles that otherwise have no home at major gaming awards. Brain-teaser creators operate at the challenging frontier game development, developing some of most fundamental forms of the video game form. Comparable to movie stunt professionals, they merit acknowledgment. We shouldn't delay decades.
