Each time a significant prize-giving event approaches, you'll find an outcry for introducing fresh award types to recognize unsung work and delight the passions of fans who have specialized interests.
A fellow writer previously argued advocating for terror-themed awards. That would be fantastic. So would strategy board titles, this being a dedicated supporter's campaign. Yet I need to apologize in advance for pushing forward since similar to blinkered fanatics, there's a strong justification supporting my request is the most urgent and important of all. This is the request: We need an award type for logic-based games.
Organizing Gaming Categories
Organizing artistic expressions defies precise measurement; opinions vary greatly, and inevitably generate discussions concluding with vague boundaries. This explains why film award organizations don’t do it. Yet it remains an unavoidable compromise for the industry of video games, which are so diverse they hardly constitute a single creative category.
For the full spectrum of interactive entertainment excellence to receive acknowledgment, and for games of all stripes to receive proper recognition, specific award classifications remain vital.
Existing Game Classification System
Leading game ceremonies currently feature genre categories for Action-oriented games, Adventure-action titles, RPG experiences, Combat games, Simulation and strategy titles, and Sports/Racing games. Between them, these classifications effectively encompass numerous genres, making space possible for numerous titles.
Different situation exists for puzzle games. No appropriate category exists for their placement. Examine these examples from this year’s best games, all very different: structural challenges in a particular game, the pulse-pounding block-matching of another game, and the sweetly sociological logic puzzles in another game. What category would fit them between these six categories? Unfortunately, nowhere.
Acknowledgment Issues
There are dozens excellent brain-teasers published annually lacking appropriate categories at major award shows, unless they happen to qualify for categories like Mobile Game, VR/AR Game, or the extremely competitive independent game categories.
- One classic puzzle game wasn’t nominated completely that year
- A different innovative game was excluded in 2019
- Well-received sorting experience was overlooked that year
- Just some logic titles scraped into independent or mobile categories
Importance of Logic Titles
Frequently they represent small games, yet the craft in brain-teasers holds tremendous importance. Famous handheld logic titles count as most engaged experiences in the world maintaining this status for many years.
The iconic tile-matching title rivals famous sandbox experiences claiming status as highest-selling title ever; it’s also in the running for top gaming experience. Puzzle games are foundational for gaming as medium, while interacting across multiple categories.
Proposal and Rationale
Puzzle games wouldn’t have that issue. You could fill five nominees engaging, different, qualified experiences each ceremony simply — perhaps, with difficulty, given the need to exclude many worthy titles.
Restating the point, these are games 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 the video game form. Just like cinema stunt performers, they merit acknowledgment. We shouldn't delay 35 years.
