🔗 Share this article

As any significant prize-giving event nears, there’s always a clamor for the addition additional classifications to recognize unsung work and fill the passions of followers with niche passions.

A fellow writer made the case for a horror game category. That would rule. The same goes for strategy board titles, this being someone's personal cause. However, I must insist if I try to elbow in front just as with other dedicated enthusiasts, I possess a compelling case supporting my request remains most pressing above others. The demand is this: We need a category for puzzle games.

Organizing Gaming Categories

Organizing artistic expressions isn't exact; opinions vary greatly, and it will always spark debates resulting in unclear classifications. There’s a reason movie academies don’t do it. However, it represents a necessary evil for the industry of video games, which are so diverse they hardly constitute as a single art form.

To recognize the complete range of gaming accomplishments to receive acknowledgment, while allowing diverse titles to compete fairly, specific award classifications remain vital.

Existing Game Classification System

Prominent interactive entertainment events presently include classifications covering Action-oriented games, Action/Adventure, Role-Playing, Fighting, Simulation and strategy titles, and Sports/Racing games. Collectively, these six categories effectively encompass many game types, making space possible accommodating various experiences.

Not so for brain-teasing titles. No suitable classification appears to accommodate them. Consider three of this year’s best games, all very different: the architectural riddles from a specific release, the pulse-pounding block-matching of another game, engaging interpersonal challenges of a third title. What category would fit them within current classifications? Nowhere, that’s where.

Acknowledgment Issues

There are dozens of brilliant puzzle games published annually that have no home during gaming ceremonies, if they accidentally match for categories like Handheld titles, Virtual reality experiences, or the extremely competitive small studio competitions.

• An iconic brain-teaser got overlooked for anything in 2014
• A different innovative game was excluded in 2019
• A beloved organization game received no acknowledgment recently
• Only a few brain-teasers barely qualified for small studio or handheld classifications

Significance of Puzzle Games

Frequently they represent small games, yet the craft behind logic titles is of massive significance. Famous handheld logic titles stand as most popular titles globally and have been for over a decade.

The famous puzzle experience rivals famous sandbox experiences competing to become best-selling game of all time; it also contends as greatest title ever. Logic titles represent cornerstones for gaming as medium, and they are in conversation with almost every other genre.

The Solution and Justification

Logic titles wouldn't face this problem. One could readily select five nominees interesting, varied, worthy titles every year with ease — actually, with challenge, since numerous excellent many worthy titles.

And to reiterate, these represent titles lacking appropriate categories in important events. Logic title developers are working at the hard edge of video game design, creating some of most fundamental forms of the video game form. Just like cinema stunt performers, they warrant appreciation. Let’s not keep them waiting 35 years.