As any prominent awards ceremony approaches, you'll find a clamor to include additional classifications to honor unsung work and satisfy the passions of fans who have specialized interests.
A fellow writer made the case supporting a scary games classification. That would be fantastic. So would tabletop games, this being a passionate advocate's mission. Yet I need to apologize in advance when I prioritize because like all single-minded supporters, I have a cast-iron argument for why my demand stands as crucial and important of all. The demand is this: It's essential to create a classification for brain-teasing titles.
The Genre Classification Challenge
Categorizing art by genre isn't exact; opinions vary greatly, and it will always spark debates concluding with vague boundaries. It's understandable that cinema institutions don’t do it. But it is an unavoidable compromise within the realm of gaming, that demonstrate such variety they barely qualify as a single art form.
For comprehensive acknowledgment 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 classifications covering Action, Action/Adventure, Role-Playing, Fighting, Sim/Strategy, and Sports/Racing games. Between them, these six categories actually cover a lot of ground, making space possible for most games within them.
Not so for puzzle games. No appropriate category exists for their placement. Think about these outstanding current releases, showing diverse approaches: building puzzles of one title, the pulse-pounding block-matching from another release, thought-provoking social scenarios in another game. Which classification works between these six categories? Unfortunately, nowhere.
Acknowledgment Issues
Many instances occur excellent brain-teasers launched regularly without proper recognition at major award shows, except when they manage to fit for categories like Mobile Game, VR/AR Game, and the highly challenging independent game categories.
- An iconic brain-teaser got overlooked for anything during that awards season
- Another creative title received no nominations that year
- Popular arranging title got ignored in 2021
- Only a few puzzle games barely qualified for niche award types
Value of Brain-Teasers
Frequently they represent compact experiences, yet the craft in brain-teasers carries substantial weight. Famous handheld logic titles rank among most popular titles globally maintaining this status for many years.
The famous puzzle experience rivals popular creative games competing to become most purchased experience; it’s also in the running as greatest title ever. Puzzle games are foundational within interactive entertainment, and they are in conversation across multiple categories.
The Solution and Justification
Brain-teasers wouldn't encounter this problem. You could fill a field of five with fascinating, diverse, deserving games each ceremony simply — actually, with challenge, given the need to exclude so many good games out.
And to reiterate, these are games that otherwise have no home at major gaming awards. Logic title developers function at the challenging frontier of video game design, creating some of the purest expressions of the video game form. Similar to cinema stunt performers, they merit acknowledgment. Don't make them wait generations.
