🔗 Share this article

Each time a significant prize-giving event nears, there’s always an outcry to include fresh award types to recognize overlooked contributions and satisfy the passions of enthusiasts who have specialized interests.

Another commentator previously argued supporting a scary games classification. That would rule. The same goes for strategy board titles, which is someone's personal cause. However, I must insist when I prioritize because like all blinkered fanatics, I possess a compelling case for why my demand is the most urgent and important of all. Here's the proposal: It's essential to create an award type for logic-based games.

The Genre Classification Challenge

Organizing artistic expressions isn't exact; it remains highly personal, and it will always start arguments resulting in unclear classifications. This explains why cinema institutions don’t do it. Yet it remains a necessary evil in the world of interactive entertainment, that demonstrate such variety they barely qualify as a single art form.

For the full spectrum of interactive entertainment excellence to receive acknowledgment, and to ensure all game types to compete fairly, specific award classifications remain vital.

Existing Game Classification System

Leading game ceremonies currently feature award types recognizing Action-oriented games, Action/Adventure, Role-Playing, Combat games, Sim/Strategy, and Sports/Racing games. Between them, these classifications successfully include a lot of ground, and you can find room for most games within them.

Not so for brain-teasing titles. There’s simply nowhere to put them. Think about these outstanding current releases, all very different: the architectural riddles from a specific release, the pulse-pounding block-matching in a different title, thought-provoking social scenarios of a third title. Where could they possibly go within current classifications? Simply put, no category fits.

The Representation Problem

There are dozens excellent brain-teasers released every year lacking appropriate categories at major award shows, if they accidentally match award groups including Mobile Game, Virtual reality experiences, or the extremely competitive Indie races.

• A renowned logic title received no recognition in any category that year
• Another creative title was excluded in 2019
• Popular arranging title got ignored that year
• Limited numbers of logic titles scraped into independent or mobile categories

Significance of Puzzle Games

These are often modest productions, but the art in brain-teasers holds tremendous importance. Iconic mobile puzzle games stand as most engaged experiences worldwide continuing this trend for many years.

The famous puzzle experience rivals well-known building titles claiming status as highest-selling title ever; it also contends as greatest title ever. Puzzle games are foundational within interactive entertainment, and they are in conversation with almost every other genre.

Proposal and Rationale

Puzzle games wouldn’t have that issue. It would be easy to populate multiple candidates engaging, different, qualified experiences every year with ease — perhaps, with difficulty, because you’d have to leave so many good games out.

To emphasize again, these are games that otherwise have no home at major gaming awards. Logic title developers are working at the hard edge of video game design, creating some of most fundamental forms of gaming itself. Just like cinema stunt performers, they deserve recognition. We shouldn't delay decades.