Each time a prominent honors show approaches, there’s always a demand to include additional classifications to acknowledge overlooked contributions and delight the spirits of followers with niche passions.
My colleague has already made advocating for terror-themed awards. It would be amazing. So would board games, representing a passionate advocate's mission. However, I must insist if I try to elbow in front because like all single-minded supporters, there's a strong justification for why my demand remains most pressing and significant. The demand is this: It's essential to create a classification for brain-teasing titles.
Categorizing Game Types
Categorizing art by genre defies precise measurement; it remains highly personal, and it will always spark debates resulting in unclear classifications. There’s a reason cinema institutions avoid this approach. However, it represents an essential concession for the industry of gaming, showing incredible range they hardly constitute a single creative category.
To recognize the complete range of interactive entertainment excellence to be recognized, and to ensure all game types to receive proper recognition, genre categories are essential.
Current Gaming Award Categories
The major gaming awards offer these classifications covering Action-oriented games, Action/Adventure, RPG experiences, Combat games, Simulation and strategy titles, plus athletic and racing experiences. Collectively, these classifications actually cover a lot of ground, and you can find room for numerous titles.
Not so for brain-teasing titles. There’s simply nowhere for their placement. Think about these recent excellent titles, showing diverse approaches: building puzzles in a particular game, the pulse-pounding block-matching in a different title, engaging interpersonal challenges in another game. Where could they possibly go within current classifications? Nowhere, that’s where.
Acknowledgment Issues
There are dozens excellent brain-teasers launched regularly lacking appropriate categories in entertainment awards, unless they happen to qualify for categories like Mobile Game, VR/AR Game, and the highly challenging Indie races.
- One classic puzzle game wasn’t nominated for anything that year
- A different innovative game was excluded in 2019
- Well-received sorting experience received no acknowledgment that year
- Just some puzzle games managed to sneak into independent or mobile categories
Value of Brain-Teasers
These are often modest productions, yet the craft behind logic titles carries substantial weight. Famous handheld logic titles stand as most popular titles in the world continuing this trend for many years.
The famous puzzle experience competes with famous sandbox experiences competing to become best-selling game of all time; it also contends for best game of all time. Brain-teasers form essential building blocks to the art of video games, and engaging with almost every other genre.
Proposal and Rationale
Logic titles wouldn't face this problem. It would be easy to populate multiple candidates interesting, varied, worthy titles annually without trouble — actually, with challenge, given the need to exclude so many good games out.
To emphasize again, these are games without proper classification during prominent ceremonies. Logic title developers operate at the hard edge of video game design, creating some of essential manifestations of the video game form. Just like film action specialists, they warrant appreciation. Don't make them wait decades.
