The Iconic Puzzle Game Wouldn't Succeed at The Game Awards — An Additional Classification Could Fix That
As any prominent awards ceremony nears, you'll find a clamor for introducing fresh award types to honor overlooked contributions and satisfy the hearts of fans dedicated to specific genres.
Another commentator has already made supporting a scary games classification. That would be fantastic. So would strategy board titles, representing a passionate advocate's mission. But they will have to forgive me for pushing forward since similar to dedicated enthusiasts, I possess a compelling case backing this proposal remains most pressing above others. The demand is this: We need an award type for logic-based games.
Categorizing Game Types
Organizing artistic expressions isn't exact; opinions vary greatly, and it will always spark debates resulting in unclear classifications. This explains why movie academies steer clear of genre categories. But it is an essential concession for the industry of interactive entertainment, that demonstrate such variety they barely qualify as a single art form.
To recognize the complete range of gaming accomplishments to gain proper attention, and to ensure all game types to compete fairly, classification by type becomes crucial.
Present Award Structure
The major gaming awards presently include award types recognizing Action-oriented games, Adventure-action titles, Role-Playing, Combat games, Sim/Strategy, and Sports/Racing games. Between them, these award types effectively encompass a lot of ground, and you can find room for most games within them.
This doesn't apply to logic-based experiences. No suitable classification appears to accommodate them. Consider three of outstanding current releases, each quite distinct: structural challenges from a specific release, intense tile-matching in a different title, engaging interpersonal challenges from additional release. What category would fit them within current classifications? Unfortunately, nowhere.
The Representation Problem
Many instances occur outstanding logic titles released every year lacking appropriate categories in entertainment awards, unless they happen to qualify for categories like Mobile Game, VR/AR Game, or the intensely contested Indie races.
- An iconic brain-teaser got overlooked completely during that awards season
- A different innovative game was excluded that year
- Popular arranging title got ignored that year
- Only a few logic titles scraped into small studio or handheld classifications
Significance of Puzzle Games
Commonly they're compact experiences, yet the craft of the puzzle game carries substantial weight. Iconic mobile puzzle games count as most popular titles worldwide maintaining this status for many years.
The famous puzzle experience rivals popular creative games claiming status as best-selling game of all time; it additionally competes for top gaming experience. Puzzle games are foundational to the art of video games, and they are in conversation with almost every other genre.
The Solution and Justification
Logic titles wouldn't face such difficulty. It would be easy to populate five nominees engaging, different, qualified experiences annually without trouble — perhaps, with difficulty, given the need to exclude so many good games out.
And to reiterate, these include experiences that otherwise have no home at major gaming awards. Puzzle game makers operate at the demanding boundary game development, creating some of essential manifestations of gaming itself. Just like movie stunt professionals, they merit acknowledgment. We shouldn't delay generations.