As any prominent awards ceremony draws close, there’s always an outcry for the addition of new categories to recognize overlooked contributions and delight the hearts of fans with niche passions.
My colleague has already made for a horror game category. That would be fantastic. Equally deserving are strategy board titles, which is someone's personal cause. Yet I need to apologize in advance when I prioritize since similar to single-minded supporters, I have a cast-iron argument supporting my request is the most urgent and significant. Here's the proposal: It's essential to create an award type for logic-based games.
Categorizing Game Types
Categorizing art by genre isn't exact; opinions vary greatly, and it will always generate discussions and end in fuzzy definitions. There’s a reason film award organizations avoid this approach. But it is an unavoidable compromise within the realm of video games, that demonstrate such variety it's challenging to consider them a single creative category.
For comprehensive acknowledgment of gaming accomplishments to gain proper attention, and to ensure all game types to compete fairly, genre categories are essential.
Current Gaming Award Categories
Leading game ceremonies currently feature award types recognizing Action, Adventure-action titles, RPG experiences, Combat games, Sim/Strategy, and Sports/Racing games. Collectively, these classifications effectively encompass a lot of ground, making space possible for numerous titles.
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 in a particular game, intense tile-matching of another game, engaging interpersonal challenges of a third title. What category would fit them between these six categories? Unfortunately, nowhere.
Recognition Challenges
Many instances occur of brilliant puzzle games launched regularly lacking appropriate categories during gaming ceremonies, except when they manage to fit for categories like Mobile Game, VR/AR Game, and the highly challenging Indie races.
- An iconic brain-teaser wasn’t nominated in any category during that awards season
- Another imaginative release received no nominations in 2019
- Well-received sorting experience got ignored in 2021
- Just some logic titles managed to sneak into independent or mobile categories
Value of Brain-Teasers
These are often modest productions, yet the craft of the puzzle game holds tremendous importance. Well-known matching games count as the most-played games in the world and have been for an extended period.
The legendary block-stacking game challenges well-known building titles competing to become highest-selling title ever; it additionally competes as greatest title ever. Logic titles represent cornerstones for gaming as medium, while interacting with diverse game types.
Proposal and Rationale
Logic titles wouldn't face such difficulty. It would be easy to populate a field of five engaging, different, qualified experiences each ceremony simply — perhaps, with difficulty, since numerous excellent 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, producing among essential manifestations of the video game form. Comparable to cinema stunt performers, they deserve recognition. We shouldn't delay generations.
