Whenever a significant awards ceremony nears, one notices a clamor for introducing of new categories to honor unsung work and delight the spirits of fans dedicated to specific genres.
A fellow writer made the case for a horror game category. It would be amazing. So would strategy board titles, which is a dedicated supporter's campaign. Yet I need to apologize in advance for pushing forward just as with other single-minded supporters, there's a strong justification for why my demand stands as crucial and important of all. This is the request: There should be an award type for logic-based games.
Organizing Gaming Categories
Organizing artistic expressions isn't exact; it remains highly personal, and it will always spark debates concluding with vague boundaries. It's understandable that movie academies don’t do it. But it is an essential concession within the realm of interactive entertainment, that demonstrate such variety they hardly constitute as a single art form.
For the full spectrum of interactive entertainment excellence to gain proper attention, and to ensure all game types to compete fairly, specific award classifications remain vital.
Present Award Structure
Prominent interactive entertainment events offer these genre categories for Action, Action/Adventure, Role-Playing, Fighting, Sim/Strategy, plus athletic and racing experiences. Together, these award types successfully include numerous genres, and you can find room accommodating various experiences.
Different situation exists for brain-teasing titles. No appropriate category exists to accommodate them. Examine these examples from recent excellent titles, each quite distinct: structural challenges from a specific release, intense tile-matching of another game, and the sweetly sociological logic puzzles from additional release. Which classification works between these six categories? Unfortunately, nowhere.
The Representation Problem
Numerous examples exist excellent brain-teasers published annually that have no home during gaming ceremonies, except when they manage to fit award groups including Mobile Game, VR/AR Game, or the extremely competitive independent game categories.
- An iconic brain-teaser got overlooked in any category in 2014
- Another imaginative release was excluded in 2019
- A beloved organization game was overlooked recently
- Limited numbers of logic titles scraped into niche award types
Significance of Puzzle Games
Frequently they represent compact experiences, yet the craft behind logic titles is of massive significance. Famous handheld logic titles count as the most-played games worldwide continuing this trend for over a decade.
The iconic tile-matching title challenges well-known building titles claiming status as highest-selling title ever; it also contends as greatest title ever. Puzzle games are foundational to the art of video games, and engaging across multiple categories.
Recommendation and Reasoning
Brain-teasers wouldn't encounter that issue. It would be easy to populate five nominees with fascinating, diverse, deserving games annually without trouble — perhaps, with difficulty, since numerous excellent so many good games out.
And to reiterate, these include experiences lacking appropriate categories during prominent ceremonies. Logic title developers operate at the challenging frontier of video game design, developing some of most fundamental forms of the video game form. Comparable to cinema stunt performers, they warrant appreciation. We shouldn't delay generations.
