The Iconic Puzzle Game Couldn't Triumph at The Game Awards — Another Award Type Could Fix That

Whenever a significant prize-giving event draws close, you'll find an outcry for introducing additional classifications to honor underappreciated efforts and delight the passions of enthusiasts with niche passions.

My colleague previously argued supporting a scary games classification. That would rule. Equally deserving are strategy board titles, this being someone's personal cause. However, I must insist if I try to elbow in front since similar to blinkered fanatics, there's a strong justification supporting my request remains most pressing above others. This is the request: There should be 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 and end in fuzzy definitions. It's understandable that film award organizations steer clear of genre categories. Yet it remains a necessary evil in the world of gaming, that demonstrate such variety it's challenging to consider them as a single art form.

For the full spectrum of achievement in video games to gain proper attention, while allowing diverse titles to receive proper recognition, genre categories are essential.

Present Award Structure

Prominent interactive entertainment events presently include genre categories for Action-oriented games, Adventure-action titles, Role-Playing, Combat games, Sim/Strategy, and Sports/Racing games. Collectively, these award types actually cover many game types, allowing placement for most games within them.

Different situation exists for puzzle games. No appropriate category exists for their placement. Consider three of this year’s best games, showing diverse approaches: building puzzles from a specific release, intense tile-matching of another game, engaging interpersonal challenges of a third title. Which classification works among existing types? Simply put, no category fits.

The Representation Problem

Many instances occur excellent brain-teasers released every year lacking appropriate categories at major award shows, if they accidentally match award groups including Mobile Game, VR/AR Game, or the intensely contested independent game categories.

• An iconic brain-teaser got overlooked completely during that awards season
• Another imaginative release was excluded in 2019
• Well-received sorting experience was overlooked that year
• Limited numbers of logic titles barely qualified for niche award types

Importance of Logic Titles

Frequently they represent compact experiences, but the art of the puzzle game is of massive significance. Well-known matching games count as most engaged experiences worldwide continuing this trend for many years.

The famous puzzle experience challenges famous sandbox experiences claiming status as highest-selling title ever; it’s also in the running as greatest title ever. Brain-teasers form essential building blocks to the art of video games, and they are in conversation across multiple categories.

Recommendation and Reasoning

Puzzle games wouldn’t have this problem. It would be easy to populate a field of five engaging, different, qualified experiences every year with ease — perhaps, with difficulty, given the need to exclude so many good games out.

And to reiterate, these include experiences lacking appropriate categories during prominent ceremonies. Logic title developers function at the challenging frontier interactive creation, developing some of the purest expressions within interactive entertainment. Similar to film action specialists, they merit acknowledgment. Let’s not keep them waiting decades.