As any significant awards ceremony draws close, you'll find an outcry to include additional classifications to recognize overlooked contributions and delight the hearts of followers with niche passions.
My colleague made the case for a horror game category. That would be fantastic. So would strategy board titles, this being someone's personal cause. Yet I need to apologize in advance if I try to elbow in front just as with other blinkered fanatics, there's a strong justification supporting my request stands as crucial and important of all. Here's the proposal: It's essential to create a category for puzzle games.
Organizing Gaming Categories
Organizing artistic expressions defies precise measurement; opinions vary greatly, and typically start arguments resulting in unclear classifications. There’s a reason movie academies avoid this approach. Yet it remains an unavoidable compromise within the realm of gaming, which are so diverse they hardly constitute as a single art form.
For the full spectrum of interactive entertainment excellence to gain proper attention, and for games of all stripes to receive proper recognition, classification by type becomes crucial.
Existing Game Classification System
Prominent interactive entertainment events currently feature classifications covering Action-oriented games, Action/Adventure, Role-Playing, Fighting, Sim/Strategy, plus athletic and racing experiences. Collectively, these classifications effectively encompass numerous genres, making space possible accommodating various experiences.
This doesn't apply to puzzle games. No suitable classification appears to put them. Examine these examples from this year’s best games, all very different: the architectural riddles in a particular game, the pulse-pounding block-matching of another game, and the sweetly sociological logic puzzles from additional release. Which classification works among existing types? Unfortunately, nowhere.
Acknowledgment Issues
There are dozens of brilliant puzzle games released every year without proper recognition during gaming ceremonies, if they accidentally match award groups including Mobile Game, Virtual reality experiences, or the extremely competitive small studio competitions.
- One classic puzzle game wasn’t nominated for anything during that awards season
- Another creative title received no nominations in 2019
- Well-received sorting experience got ignored recently
- Only a few puzzle games managed to sneak into independent or mobile categories
Value of Brain-Teasers
Frequently they represent modest productions, however the design in brain-teasers holds tremendous importance. Well-known matching games stand as most popular titles globally and have been for an extended period.
The legendary block-stacking game competes with famous sandbox experiences competing to become highest-selling title ever; it also contends for best game of all time. Puzzle games are foundational to the art of video games, while interacting with almost every other genre.
The Solution and Justification
Brain-teasers wouldn't encounter such difficulty. One could readily select multiple candidates with fascinating, diverse, deserving games each ceremony simply — or rather, with difficulty, given the need to exclude many worthy titles.
Restating the point, these are games without proper classification in important events. Brain-teaser creators function at the hard edge game development, producing among essential manifestations within interactive entertainment. Comparable to movie stunt professionals, they deserve recognition. Don't make them wait decades.
