🔗 Share this article

As any major prize-giving event nears, you'll find a demand for the addition additional classifications to acknowledge overlooked contributions and delight the hearts of fans who have specialized interests.

Another commentator previously argued for a horror game category. It would be amazing. So would strategy board titles, which is a passionate advocate's mission. However, I must insist when I prioritize because like all blinkered fanatics, I possess a compelling case supporting my request is the most urgent and significant. The demand is this: We need a classification for brain-teasing titles.

Organizing Gaming Categories

Organizing artistic expressions is not a science; opinions vary greatly, and typically start arguments concluding with vague boundaries. It's understandable that movie academies steer clear of genre categories. Yet it remains an essential concession for the industry of video games, showing incredible range they barely qualify a single creative category.

To recognize the complete range of interactive entertainment excellence to receive acknowledgment, and for games of all stripes to receive proper recognition, classification by type becomes crucial.

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. Together, these six categories successfully include a lot of ground, allowing placement for numerous titles.

Not so for logic-based experiences. No appropriate category exists to accommodate them. Consider three of outstanding current releases, showing diverse approaches: structural challenges in a particular game, the pulse-pounding block-matching from another release, engaging interpersonal challenges in another game. Which classification works between these six categories? Simply put, no category fits.

Acknowledgment Issues

There are dozens of brilliant puzzle games published annually without proper recognition at major award shows, if they accidentally match classification types such as Mobile Game, Virtual reality experiences, or the intensely contested small studio competitions.

• One classic puzzle game wasn’t nominated completely in 2014
• Another creative title was excluded that year
• A beloved organization game got ignored recently
• Limited numbers of logic titles scraped into independent or mobile categories

Importance of Logic Titles

Frequently they represent compact experiences, but the art of the puzzle game is of massive significance. Iconic mobile puzzle games rank among most popular titles worldwide continuing this trend for an extended period.

The legendary block-stacking game competes with famous sandbox experiences competing to become highest-selling title ever; it also contends as greatest title ever. Logic titles represent cornerstones for gaming as medium, and engaging with diverse game types.

The Solution and Justification

Puzzle games wouldn’t have such difficulty. It would be easy to populate five nominees engaging, different, qualified experiences every year with ease — or rather, with difficulty, given the need to exclude so many good games out.

Restating the point, these are games without proper classification during prominent ceremonies. Logic title developers function at the demanding boundary of video game design, producing among the purest expressions of the video game form. Comparable to film action specialists, they deserve recognition. We shouldn't delay generations.