As any prominent awards ceremony approaches, one notices a demand to include of new categories to honor underappreciated efforts and fill the passions of followers with niche passions.
Another commentator has already made for a horror game category. That would rule. The same goes for tabletop games, which is 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, there's a strong justification backing this proposal remains most pressing and important of all. This is the request: We need a classification for brain-teasing titles.
Organizing Gaming Categories
Categorizing art by genre isn't exact; opinions vary greatly, and it will always start arguments concluding with vague boundaries. It's understandable that movie academies steer clear of genre categories. However, it represents an essential concession for the industry of interactive entertainment, that demonstrate such variety it's challenging to consider them one unified medium.
To recognize the complete range of interactive entertainment excellence to be recognized, while allowing diverse titles to have a chance for representation, classification by type becomes crucial.
Present Award Structure
Prominent interactive entertainment events presently include classifications covering Action-oriented games, Action/Adventure, Role-Playing, Fighting, Sim/Strategy, and Sports/Racing games. Together, these award types effectively encompass many game types, and you can find room for most games within them.
Not so for logic-based experiences. No suitable classification appears to put them. Think about these recent excellent titles, all very different: structural challenges in a particular game, fast-paced pattern recognition from another release, and the sweetly sociological logic puzzles in another game. What category would fit them among existing types? Nowhere, that’s where.
The Representation Problem
Numerous examples exist excellent brain-teasers published annually lacking appropriate categories during gaming ceremonies, except when they manage to fit for categories like Handheld titles, VR/AR Game, or the intensely contested independent game categories.
- A renowned logic title wasn’t nominated for anything that year
- Another creative title missed out during that ceremony
- Well-received sorting experience was overlooked that year
- Just some logic titles barely qualified for small studio or handheld classifications
Value of Brain-Teasers
These are often small games, yet the craft of the puzzle game carries substantial weight. Iconic mobile puzzle games count as the most-played games in the world maintaining this status for an extended period.
The legendary block-stacking game challenges well-known building titles competing to become best-selling game of all time; it’s also in the running for best game of all time. Brain-teasers form essential building blocks to the art of video games, and they are in conversation with diverse game types.
Proposal and Rationale
Brain-teasers wouldn't encounter that issue. It would be easy to populate multiple candidates engaging, different, qualified experiences each ceremony simply — or rather, with difficulty, because you’d have to leave so many good games out.
And to reiterate, these include experiences without proper classification at major gaming awards. Logic title developers are working at the demanding boundary of video game design, producing among the purest expressions within interactive entertainment. Just like film action specialists, they warrant appreciation. We shouldn't delay generations.
