As any prominent honors show approaches, there’s always a demand to include fresh award types to acknowledge unsung work and delight the spirits of enthusiasts with niche passions.
My colleague made the case for a horror game category. It would be amazing. Equally deserving are tabletop games, this being a passionate advocate's mission. But they will have to forgive me for pushing forward because like all blinkered fanatics, I possess a compelling case for why my demand stands as crucial and important of all. The demand is this: We need a category for puzzle games.
Categorizing Game Types
Categorizing art by genre isn't exact; opinions vary greatly, and inevitably start arguments concluding with vague boundaries. There’s a reason film award organizations don’t do it. But it is an unavoidable compromise for the industry of interactive entertainment, which are so diverse they hardly constitute as a single art form.
For comprehensive acknowledgment of interactive entertainment excellence to receive acknowledgment, and for games of all stripes to receive proper recognition, genre categories are essential.
Present Award Structure
The major gaming awards presently include classifications covering Action-oriented games, Action/Adventure, RPG experiences, Combat games, Simulation and strategy titles, and Sports/Racing games. Together, these classifications successfully include many game types, allowing placement for numerous titles.
Not so for puzzle games. There’s simply nowhere to accommodate them. Examine these examples from recent excellent titles, each quite distinct: the architectural riddles of one title, fast-paced pattern recognition in a different title, and the sweetly sociological logic puzzles in another game. Which classification works among existing types? Unfortunately, nowhere.
The Representation Problem
Many instances occur outstanding logic titles released every year without proper recognition during gaming ceremonies, if they accidentally match award groups including Mobile Game, VR/AR Game, and the highly challenging independent game categories.
- A renowned logic title received no recognition in any category that year
- Another creative title missed out in 2019
- Well-received sorting experience was overlooked that year
- Just some logic titles barely qualified for niche award types
Significance of Puzzle Games
Commonly they're modest productions, but the art of the puzzle game carries substantial weight. Iconic mobile puzzle games rank among most popular titles worldwide and have been for an extended period.
The iconic tile-matching title competes with popular creative games for the title of most purchased experience; it’s also in the running for best game of all time. Puzzle games are foundational within interactive entertainment, while interacting with almost every other genre.
Recommendation and Reasoning
Puzzle games wouldn’t have this problem. It would be easy to populate multiple candidates with fascinating, diverse, deserving games annually without trouble — perhaps, with difficulty, given the need to exclude numerous deserving experiences.
To emphasize again, these are games lacking appropriate categories in important events. Brain-teaser creators are working at the hard edge game development, producing among most fundamental forms within interactive entertainment. Just like movie stunt professionals, they merit acknowledgment. We shouldn't delay decades.
