Each time a major prize-giving event draws close, one notices an outcry for the addition of new categories to honor unsung work and delight the hearts of enthusiasts with niche passions.
My colleague previously argued advocating for terror-themed awards. That would rule. So would board games, representing someone's personal cause. Yet I need to apologize in advance if I try to elbow in front because like all blinkered fanatics, there's a strong justification backing this proposal is the most urgent and important of all. This is the request: There should be a category for puzzle games.
The Genre Classification Challenge
Organizing artistic expressions isn't exact; opinions vary greatly, and typically start arguments concluding with vague boundaries. This explains why cinema institutions avoid this approach. But it is a necessary evil in the world of interactive entertainment, which are so diverse they hardly constitute one unified medium.
To recognize the complete range of interactive entertainment excellence to be recognized, and to ensure all game types to have a chance for representation, classification by type becomes crucial.
Current Gaming Award Categories
Prominent interactive entertainment events offer these classifications covering Action-oriented games, Action/Adventure, RPG experiences, Fighting, Simulation and strategy titles, plus athletic and racing experiences. Collectively, these six categories successfully include many game types, making space possible accommodating various experiences.
Different situation exists for brain-teasing titles. No suitable classification appears for their placement. Examine these examples from outstanding current releases, all very different: structural challenges in a particular game, the pulse-pounding block-matching in a different title, and the sweetly sociological logic puzzles in another game. Where could they possibly go between these six categories? Simply put, no category fits.
Acknowledgment Issues
Numerous examples exist of brilliant puzzle games released every year without proper recognition during gaming ceremonies, unless they happen to qualify award groups including Handheld titles, VR/AR Game, or the extremely competitive independent game categories.
- One classic puzzle game got overlooked in any category in 2014
- Another imaginative release was excluded in 2019
- Well-received sorting experience was overlooked that year
- Just some logic titles scraped into niche award types
Significance of Puzzle Games
These are often compact experiences, yet the craft behind logic titles carries substantial weight. Famous handheld logic titles count as most engaged experiences globally maintaining this status for over a decade.
The legendary block-stacking game competes with well-known building titles for the title of most purchased experience; it’s also in the running for best game of all time. Puzzle games are foundational within interactive entertainment, while interacting across multiple categories.
Proposal and Rationale
Puzzle games wouldn’t have this problem. It would be easy to populate a field of five interesting, varied, worthy titles every year with ease — or rather, with difficulty, because you’d have to leave many worthy titles.
And to reiterate, these are games that otherwise have no home at major gaming awards. Puzzle game makers are working at the hard edge game development, developing some of most fundamental forms within interactive entertainment. Similar to movie stunt professionals, they warrant appreciation. Don't make them wait generations.
