Whenever a prominent awards ceremony approaches, you'll find a demand for the addition additional classifications to acknowledge unsung work and fill the passions of fans with niche passions.
My colleague has already made for a horror game category. It would be amazing. The same goes for tabletop games, which is a dedicated supporter's campaign. Yet I need to apologize in advance for pushing forward since similar to blinkered fanatics, I have a cast-iron argument supporting my request stands as crucial and significant. The demand is this: We need a category for puzzle games.
The Genre Classification Challenge
Classifying creative works is not a science; it remains highly personal, and typically start arguments and end in fuzzy definitions. There’s a reason cinema institutions steer clear of genre categories. Yet it remains an essential concession within the realm of video games, showing incredible range they barely qualify one unified medium.
To recognize the complete range of gaming accomplishments to be recognized, and to ensure all game types to compete fairly, classification by type becomes crucial.
Current Gaming Award Categories
Leading game ceremonies offer these genre categories for Action, Action/Adventure, RPG experiences, Combat games, Simulation and strategy titles, and Sports/Racing games. Between them, these award types effectively encompass a lot of ground, allowing placement accommodating various experiences.
Not so for puzzle games. No appropriate category exists to put them. Examine these examples from recent excellent titles, showing diverse approaches: building puzzles of one title, fast-paced pattern recognition of another game, and the sweetly sociological logic puzzles from additional release. What category would fit them within current classifications? Simply put, no category fits.
The Representation Problem
Many instances occur of brilliant puzzle games published annually lacking appropriate categories during gaming ceremonies, except when they manage to fit award groups including Mobile Game, Virtual reality experiences, or the intensely contested small studio competitions.
- An iconic brain-teaser got overlooked completely during that awards season
- A different innovative game received no nominations that year
- A beloved organization game received no acknowledgment recently
- Just some puzzle games managed to sneak into small studio or handheld classifications
Value of Brain-Teasers
Commonly they're modest productions, yet the craft in brain-teasers is of massive significance. Iconic mobile puzzle games rank among most engaged experiences worldwide continuing this trend for many years.
The iconic tile-matching title challenges well-known building titles competing to become best-selling game of all time; it’s also in the running for top gaming experience. Brain-teasers form essential building blocks within interactive entertainment, while interacting across multiple categories.
Proposal and Rationale
Brain-teasers wouldn't encounter that issue. One could readily select a field of five with fascinating, diverse, deserving games annually without trouble — actually, with challenge, because you’d have to leave numerous deserving experiences.
Restating the point, these represent titles that otherwise have no home at major gaming awards. Puzzle game makers function at the challenging frontier of video game design, developing some of essential manifestations of the video game form. Comparable to movie stunt professionals, they deserve recognition. Don't make them wait decades.