As any prominent honors show draws close, there’s always an outcry to include of new categories to honor underappreciated efforts and satisfy the hearts of fans with niche passions.
My colleague made the case for a horror game category. It would be amazing. Equally deserving are board games, this being a passionate advocate's mission. However, I must insist for pushing forward because like all single-minded supporters, I possess a compelling case backing this proposal is the most urgent and significant. This is the request: We need a category for puzzle games.
Organizing Gaming Categories
Organizing artistic expressions defies precise measurement; opinions vary greatly, and inevitably spark debates concluding with vague boundaries. There’s a reason movie academies avoid this approach. However, it represents an unavoidable compromise in the world of video games, showing incredible range they barely qualify as a single art form.
To recognize the complete range of gaming accomplishments to be recognized, and for games of all stripes to receive proper recognition, classification by type becomes crucial.
Current Gaming Award Categories
Prominent interactive entertainment events offer these award types recognizing Action, Adventure-action titles, RPG experiences, Fighting, Simulation and strategy titles, plus athletic and racing experiences. Between them, these award types actually cover numerous genres, making space possible accommodating various experiences.
Different situation exists for puzzle games. No appropriate category exists to accommodate them. Examine these examples from recent excellent titles, showing diverse approaches: the architectural riddles from a specific release, the pulse-pounding block-matching in a different title, and the sweetly sociological logic puzzles from additional release. Which classification works between these six categories? Nowhere, that’s where.
Acknowledgment Issues
Numerous examples exist excellent brain-teasers released every year without proper recognition during gaming ceremonies, if they accidentally match classification types such as Handheld titles, Virtual reality experiences, or the extremely competitive Indie races.
- An iconic brain-teaser got overlooked completely that year
- A different innovative game missed out during that ceremony
- Popular arranging title was overlooked in 2021
- Limited numbers of puzzle games barely qualified for niche award types
Significance of Puzzle Games
These are often compact experiences, however the design in brain-teasers holds tremendous importance. Iconic mobile puzzle games stand as the most-played games in the world and have been for over a decade.
The legendary block-stacking game challenges well-known building titles competing to become most purchased experience; it also contends as greatest title ever. Brain-teasers form essential building blocks to the art of video games, and they are in conversation with diverse game types.
Recommendation and Reasoning
Puzzle games wouldn’t have such difficulty. It would be easy to populate five nominees engaging, different, qualified experiences every year with ease — perhaps, with difficulty, given the need to exclude many worthy titles.
And to reiterate, these represent titles that otherwise have no home at major gaming awards. Logic title developers function at the challenging frontier of video game design, developing some of the purest expressions of gaming itself. Just like movie stunt professionals, they deserve recognition. Don't make them wait 35 years.
