Whenever a prominent honors show nears, there’s always a clamor for introducing of new categories to acknowledge unsung work and delight the passions of enthusiasts who have specialized interests.
My colleague previously argued for a horror game category. That would rule. Equally deserving are tabletop games, this being a passionate advocate's mission. Yet I need to apologize in advance if I try to elbow in front just as with other dedicated enthusiasts, I possess a compelling case supporting my request is the most urgent and significant. The demand is this: It's essential to create an award type for logic-based games.
Organizing Gaming Categories
Classifying creative works defies precise measurement; opinions vary greatly, and typically start arguments and end in fuzzy definitions. It's understandable that film award organizations avoid this approach. However, it represents an essential concession for the industry of video games, which are so diverse they hardly constitute as a single art form.
For the full spectrum of achievement in video games to receive acknowledgment, and for games of all stripes to compete fairly, classification by type becomes crucial.
Existing Game Classification System
The major gaming awards offer these genre categories for Action, Adventure-action titles, Role-Playing, Fighting, Sim/Strategy, and Sports/Racing games. Collectively, these classifications effectively encompass many game types, and you can find room for most games within them.
Different situation exists for logic-based experiences. No appropriate category exists to accommodate them. Think about these recent excellent titles, all very different: building puzzles from a specific release, the pulse-pounding block-matching in a different title, and the sweetly sociological logic puzzles in another game. Which classification works between these six categories? Simply put, no category fits.
Acknowledgment Issues
There are dozens of brilliant puzzle games launched regularly without proper recognition at major award shows, except when they manage to fit for categories like Mobile Game, VR/AR Game, or the intensely contested small studio competitions.
- A renowned logic title got overlooked in any category in 2014
- Another creative title received no nominations that year
- A beloved organization game was overlooked that year
- Just some brain-teasers barely qualified for niche award types
Significance of Puzzle Games
These are often small games, but the art behind logic titles is of massive significance. Iconic mobile puzzle games count as most engaged experiences globally continuing this trend for many years.
The iconic tile-matching title competes with famous sandbox experiences competing to become most purchased experience; it’s also in the running for top gaming experience. Logic titles represent cornerstones within interactive entertainment, and engaging with diverse game types.
Proposal and Rationale
Brain-teasers wouldn't encounter this problem. You could fill multiple candidates interesting, varied, worthy titles each ceremony simply — perhaps, with difficulty, since numerous excellent many worthy titles.
To emphasize again, these represent titles without proper classification at major gaming awards. Puzzle game makers function at the hard edge game development, developing some of most fundamental forms of gaming itself. Similar to movie stunt professionals, they merit acknowledgment. We shouldn't delay decades.