Whenever a prominent prize-giving event nears, there’s always a clamor to include fresh award types to recognize underappreciated efforts and fill the passions of enthusiasts with niche passions.
My colleague has already made for a horror game category. That would be fantastic. The same goes for tabletop games, this being someone's personal cause. Yet I need to apologize in advance for pushing forward because like all blinkered fanatics, I possess a compelling case for why my demand is the most urgent above others. Here's the proposal: There should be an award type for logic-based games.
Categorizing Game Types
Categorizing art by genre is not a science; opinions vary greatly, and inevitably generate discussions concluding with vague boundaries. It's understandable that cinema institutions avoid this approach. But it is an unavoidable compromise for the industry of gaming, showing incredible range they hardly constitute a single creative category.
For comprehensive acknowledgment of gaming accomplishments to receive acknowledgment, while allowing diverse titles to receive proper recognition, specific award classifications remain vital.
Existing Game Classification System
Leading game ceremonies offer these genre categories for Action, Adventure-action titles, RPG experiences, Fighting, Simulation and strategy titles, and Sports/Racing games. Between them, these classifications successfully include a lot of ground, and you can find room for most games within them.
Not so for puzzle games. There’s simply nowhere to put them. Consider three of this year’s best games, showing diverse approaches: structural challenges of one title, intense tile-matching of another game, and the sweetly sociological logic puzzles from additional release. What category would fit them between these six categories? Simply put, no category fits.
Acknowledgment Issues
Numerous examples exist outstanding logic titles published annually without proper recognition during gaming ceremonies, except when they manage to fit classification types such as Handheld titles, VR/AR Game, or the intensely contested small studio competitions.
- A renowned logic title received no recognition for anything that year
- Another imaginative release received no nominations in 2019
- Popular arranging title was overlooked recently
- Limited numbers of logic titles managed to sneak into niche award types
Significance of Puzzle Games
These are often compact experiences, yet the craft of the puzzle game carries substantial weight. Famous handheld logic titles rank among the most-played games in the world maintaining this status for an extended period.
The iconic tile-matching title competes with well-known building titles for the title of highest-selling title ever; it additionally competes for top gaming experience. Puzzle games are foundational to the art of video games, while interacting with almost every other genre.
Proposal and Rationale
Logic titles wouldn't face that issue. It would be easy to populate five nominees with fascinating, diverse, deserving games every year with ease — or rather, with difficulty, because you’d have to leave many worthy titles.
And to reiterate, these represent titles lacking appropriate categories at major gaming awards. Logic title developers function at the challenging frontier interactive creation, producing among most fundamental forms of gaming itself. Just like film action specialists, they warrant appreciation. Don't make them wait 35 years.
