As any major honors show draws close, one notices a clamor for introducing additional classifications to recognize underappreciated efforts and delight the spirits of enthusiasts with niche passions.
My colleague made the case for a horror game category. That would be fantastic. The same goes for board games, which is someone's personal cause. But they will have to forgive me when I prioritize just as with other blinkered fanatics, I possess a compelling case backing this proposal remains most pressing above others. The demand is this: We need a category for puzzle games.
Organizing Gaming Categories
Organizing artistic expressions isn't exact; opinions vary greatly, and inevitably start arguments concluding with vague boundaries. There’s a reason movie academies steer clear of genre categories. Yet it remains a necessary evil within the realm of gaming, that demonstrate such variety it's challenging to consider them a single creative category.
For the full spectrum of achievement in video games to be recognized, and to ensure all game types to compete fairly, classification by type becomes crucial.
Current Gaming Award Categories
Leading game ceremonies currently feature genre categories for Action, Action/Adventure, Role-Playing, Combat games, Sim/Strategy, plus athletic and racing experiences. Between them, these award types effectively encompass many game types, making space possible for most games within them.
Not so for logic-based experiences. No appropriate category exists to accommodate them. Consider three of this year’s best games, all very different: structural challenges of one title, fast-paced pattern recognition in a different title, and the sweetly sociological logic puzzles of a third title. What category would fit them within current classifications? Unfortunately, nowhere.
The Representation Problem
Numerous examples exist of brilliant puzzle games published annually that have no home during gaming ceremonies, unless they happen to qualify for categories like Handheld titles, Virtual reality experiences, or the extremely competitive small studio competitions.
- An iconic brain-teaser wasn’t nominated completely in 2014
- Another creative title received no nominations that year
- Popular arranging title received no acknowledgment recently
- Limited numbers of puzzle games scraped into independent or mobile categories
Value of Brain-Teasers
These are often modest productions, yet the craft behind logic titles is of massive significance. Iconic mobile puzzle games count as most popular titles worldwide and have been for over a decade.
The legendary block-stacking game competes with well-known building titles claiming status as highest-selling title ever; it additionally competes for top gaming experience. Puzzle games are foundational within interactive entertainment, and engaging across multiple categories.
The Solution and Justification
Puzzle games wouldn’t have this problem. It would be easy to populate a field of five with fascinating, diverse, deserving games every year with ease — or rather, with difficulty, given the need to exclude numerous deserving experiences.
To emphasize again, these are games that otherwise have no home during prominent ceremonies. Logic title developers operate at the hard edge interactive creation, creating some of the purest expressions of the video game form. Just like film action specialists, they warrant appreciation. Don't make them wait decades.
