Whenever a prominent honors show nears, one notices a demand for the addition additional classifications to acknowledge underappreciated efforts and delight the spirits of followers with niche passions.
Another commentator made the case for a horror game category. It would be amazing. The same goes for strategy board titles, which is a passionate advocate's mission. Yet I need to apologize in advance when I prioritize because like all single-minded supporters, I possess a compelling case supporting my request remains most pressing above others. The demand is this: There should be a category for puzzle games.
Categorizing Game Types
Classifying creative works defies precise measurement; it remains highly personal, and inevitably generate discussions and end in fuzzy definitions. There’s a reason cinema institutions steer clear of genre categories. However, it represents a necessary evil for the industry of gaming, that demonstrate such variety they hardly constitute a single creative category.
For the full spectrum of achievement in video games to gain proper attention, and for games of all stripes to receive proper recognition, classification by type becomes crucial.
Current Gaming Award Categories
The major gaming awards currently feature genre categories for Action-oriented games, Action/Adventure, Role-Playing, Combat games, Sim/Strategy, and Sports/Racing games. Together, these six categories successfully include a lot of ground, allowing placement accommodating various experiences.
Different situation exists for puzzle games. No suitable classification appears to put them. Examine these examples from recent excellent titles, all very different: building puzzles in a particular game, fast-paced pattern recognition in a different title, thought-provoking social scenarios of a third title. What category would fit them between these six categories? Nowhere, that’s where.
Recognition Challenges
Numerous examples exist excellent brain-teasers released every year without proper recognition at major award shows, except when they manage to fit for categories like Handheld titles, VR/AR Game, or the extremely competitive Indie races.
- An iconic brain-teaser got overlooked completely during that awards season
- A different innovative game missed out in 2019
- Popular arranging title was overlooked that year
- Only a few puzzle games scraped into small studio or handheld classifications
Value of Brain-Teasers
Frequently they represent compact experiences, but the art of the puzzle game holds tremendous importance. Well-known matching games stand as the most-played games globally and have been for many years.
The legendary block-stacking game competes with famous sandbox experiences for the title of highest-selling title ever; it’s also in the running as greatest title ever. Logic titles represent cornerstones to the art of video games, and engaging across multiple categories.
Recommendation and Reasoning
Logic titles wouldn't face this problem. One could readily select multiple candidates engaging, different, qualified experiences annually without trouble — perhaps, with difficulty, given the need to exclude numerous deserving experiences.
Restating the point, these are games lacking appropriate categories in important events. Logic title developers operate at the challenging frontier of video game design, producing among essential manifestations of gaming itself. Comparable to film action specialists, they warrant appreciation. Let’s not keep them waiting generations.
