As any significant prize-giving event approaches, one notices an outcry for the addition of new categories to honor underappreciated efforts and delight the hearts of fans dedicated to specific genres.
My colleague previously argued for a horror game category. It would be amazing. So would tabletop games, which is a passionate advocate's mission. Yet I need to apologize in advance when I prioritize just as with other blinkered fanatics, there's a strong justification backing this proposal stands as crucial and important of all. The demand is this: There should be a classification for brain-teasing titles.
The Genre Classification Challenge
Organizing artistic expressions defies precise measurement; opinions vary greatly, and it will always generate discussions concluding with vague boundaries. This explains why cinema institutions don’t do it. Yet it remains an essential concession for the industry of gaming, which are so diverse they barely qualify as a single art form.
For the full spectrum of achievement in video games to be recognized, while allowing diverse titles to compete fairly, classification by type becomes crucial.
Current Gaming Award Categories
Prominent interactive entertainment events presently include award types recognizing Action-oriented games, Action/Adventure, Role-Playing, Fighting, Sim/Strategy, and Sports/Racing games. Between them, these award types successfully include many game types, making space possible for numerous titles.
Different situation exists for brain-teasing titles. There’s simply nowhere to accommodate them. Consider three of recent excellent titles, each quite distinct: building puzzles of one title, fast-paced pattern recognition from another release, engaging interpersonal challenges in another game. What category would fit them among existing types? Simply put, no category fits.
Acknowledgment Issues
Numerous examples exist of brilliant puzzle games launched regularly without proper recognition at major award shows, if they accidentally match classification types such as Mobile Game, VR/AR Game, or the extremely competitive small studio competitions.
- A renowned logic title got overlooked for anything that year
- Another imaginative release received no nominations that year
- Well-received sorting experience was overlooked recently
- Limited numbers of brain-teasers scraped into independent or mobile categories
Importance of Logic Titles
These are often small games, yet the craft behind logic titles is of massive significance. Iconic mobile puzzle games stand as most engaged experiences globally and have been for an extended period.
The famous puzzle experience rivals famous sandbox experiences competing to become most purchased experience; it additionally competes as greatest title ever. Logic titles represent cornerstones to the art of video games, while interacting with diverse game types.
The Solution and Justification
Brain-teasers wouldn't encounter such difficulty. You could fill multiple candidates 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 include experiences lacking appropriate categories in important events. Puzzle game makers function at the challenging frontier of video game design, creating some of most fundamental forms within interactive entertainment. Comparable to cinema stunt performers, they warrant appreciation. Let’s not keep them waiting decades.
