Whenever a significant awards ceremony draws close, you'll find an outcry for the addition additional classifications to recognize unsung work and delight the hearts of followers with niche passions.
My colleague previously argued supporting a scary games classification. It would be amazing. The same goes for strategy board titles, representing a dedicated supporter's campaign. However, I must insist when I prioritize since similar to dedicated enthusiasts, there's a strong justification for why my demand stands as crucial above others. This is the request: We need a category for puzzle games.
Organizing Gaming Categories
Classifying creative works defies precise measurement; it’s very subjective, and it will always spark debates and end in fuzzy definitions. It's understandable that movie academies don’t do it. However, it represents an unavoidable compromise for the industry of gaming, that demonstrate such variety it's challenging to consider them one unified medium.
For the full spectrum of interactive entertainment excellence to be recognized, and for games of all stripes to compete fairly, specific award classifications remain vital.
Current Gaming Award Categories
Leading game ceremonies offer these award types recognizing Action-oriented games, Action/Adventure, RPG experiences, Combat games, Simulation and strategy titles, and Sports/Racing games. Collectively, these classifications actually cover numerous genres, allowing placement for most games within them.
Not so for puzzle games. No suitable classification appears to accommodate them. Think about these this year’s best games, showing diverse approaches: building puzzles from a specific release, intense tile-matching of another game, engaging interpersonal challenges from additional release. Where could they possibly go between these six categories? Nowhere, that’s where.
The Representation Problem
Numerous examples exist excellent brain-teasers published annually lacking appropriate categories during gaming ceremonies, unless they happen to qualify for categories like Handheld titles, VR/AR Game, or the intensely contested small studio competitions.
- An iconic brain-teaser wasn’t nominated completely that year
- Another imaginative release was excluded that year
- A beloved organization game got ignored that year
- Just some brain-teasers managed to sneak into small studio or handheld classifications
Significance of Puzzle Games
These are often compact experiences, however the design in brain-teasers carries substantial weight. Iconic mobile puzzle games rank among the most-played games worldwide continuing this trend for over a decade.
The famous puzzle experience competes with popular creative games competing to become best-selling game of all time; it also contends for top gaming experience. Brain-teasers form essential building blocks for gaming as medium, and engaging with almost every other genre.
The Solution and Justification
Puzzle games wouldn’t have such difficulty. You could fill multiple candidates engaging, different, qualified experiences annually without trouble — actually, with challenge, 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 operate at the hard edge game development, developing some of most fundamental forms of gaming itself. Just like cinema stunt performers, they warrant appreciation. Don't make them wait 35 years.
