As any major honors show draws close, you'll find a demand to include fresh award types to acknowledge underappreciated efforts and fill the passions of fans with niche passions.
My colleague previously argued for a horror game category. It would be amazing. Equally deserving are board games, this being a passionate advocate's mission. Yet I need to apologize in advance for pushing forward since similar to single-minded supporters, I have a cast-iron argument backing this proposal is the most urgent and significant. Here's the proposal: There should be a classification for brain-teasing titles.
The Genre Classification Challenge
Organizing artistic expressions defies precise measurement; opinions vary greatly, and inevitably spark debates concluding with vague boundaries. This explains why movie academies avoid this approach. Yet it remains an essential concession for the industry of interactive entertainment, which are so diverse it's challenging to consider them a single creative category.
For the full spectrum of interactive entertainment excellence to receive acknowledgment, while allowing diverse titles to have a chance for representation, specific award classifications remain vital.
Present Award Structure
Leading game ceremonies presently include classifications covering Action, Action/Adventure, Role-Playing, Combat games, Simulation and strategy titles, plus athletic and racing experiences. Collectively, these classifications effectively encompass numerous genres, making space possible accommodating various experiences.
Not so for brain-teasing titles. No suitable classification appears to put them. Examine these examples from this year’s best games, all very different: the architectural riddles from a specific release, the pulse-pounding block-matching of another game, engaging interpersonal challenges from additional release. Which classification works within current classifications? Simply put, no category fits.
Recognition Challenges
There are dozens excellent brain-teasers published annually that have no home at major award shows, unless they happen to qualify award groups including Mobile Game, VR/AR Game, or the extremely competitive independent game categories.
- An iconic brain-teaser wasn’t nominated for anything during that awards season
- Another imaginative release was excluded in 2019
- A beloved organization game was overlooked recently
- Just some logic titles barely qualified for independent or mobile categories
Significance of Puzzle Games
Commonly they're small games, yet the craft of the puzzle game is of massive significance. Iconic mobile puzzle games rank among most popular titles in the world continuing this trend for many years.
The famous puzzle experience rivals famous sandbox experiences competing to become best-selling game of all time; it additionally competes as greatest title ever. Puzzle games are foundational within interactive entertainment, and they are in conversation with diverse game types.
The Solution and Justification
Puzzle games wouldn’t have that issue. You could fill a field of five with fascinating, diverse, deserving games each ceremony simply — or rather, with difficulty, given the need to exclude many worthy titles.
And to reiterate, these include experiences that otherwise have no home during prominent ceremonies. Puzzle game makers function at the challenging frontier game development, developing some of most fundamental forms of the video game form. Similar to film action specialists, they merit acknowledgment. Let’s not keep them waiting decades.
