The Iconic Puzzle Game Wouldn't Triumph at This Gaming Ceremony — Another Award Type Could Fix That

Whenever a major awards ceremony nears, one notices a clamor for introducing additional classifications to recognize overlooked contributions and delight the spirits of fans with niche passions.

Another commentator made the case for a horror game category. That would rule. Equally deserving are board games, which is a passionate advocate's mission. Yet I need to apologize in advance for pushing forward just as with other blinkered fanatics, I have a cast-iron argument supporting my request remains most pressing and significant. The demand is this: We need a category for puzzle games.

Organizing Gaming Categories

Categorizing art by genre is not a science; it remains highly personal, and inevitably start arguments concluding with vague boundaries. It's understandable that film award organizations avoid this approach. Yet it remains an unavoidable compromise for the industry of interactive entertainment, which are so diverse it's challenging to consider them a single creative category.

For the full spectrum of achievement in video games to receive acknowledgment, while allowing diverse titles to receive proper recognition, classification by type becomes crucial.

Existing Game Classification System

The major gaming awards presently include classifications covering Action, Action/Adventure, RPG experiences, Fighting, Simulation and strategy titles, plus athletic and racing experiences. Between them, these classifications actually cover many game types, making space possible accommodating various experiences.

Not so for logic-based experiences. There’s simply nowhere to accommodate them. Examine these examples from this year’s best games, all very different: building puzzles in a particular game, fast-paced pattern recognition from another release, thought-provoking social scenarios of a third title. Which classification works among existing types? Nowhere, that’s where.

The Representation Problem

There are dozens outstanding logic titles released every year without proper recognition in entertainment awards, if they accidentally match classification types such as Handheld titles, Virtual reality experiences, and the highly challenging small studio competitions.

  • An iconic brain-teaser received no recognition in any category that year
  • Another creative title received no nominations during that ceremony
  • Popular arranging title got ignored recently
  • Limited numbers of puzzle games managed to sneak into independent or mobile categories

Importance of Logic Titles

These are often compact experiences, but the art of the puzzle game holds tremendous importance. Famous handheld logic titles stand as the most-played games worldwide continuing this trend for many years.

The famous puzzle experience competes with popular creative games claiming status as best-selling game of all time; it also contends for best game of all time. Puzzle games are foundational to the art of video games, and engaging with diverse game types.

Proposal and Rationale

Logic titles wouldn't face that issue. One could readily select a field of five engaging, different, qualified experiences each ceremony simply — perhaps, with difficulty, since numerous excellent numerous deserving experiences.

And to reiterate, these include experiences lacking appropriate categories in important events. Brain-teaser creators are working at the challenging frontier of video game design, developing some of most fundamental forms of gaming itself. Comparable to movie stunt professionals, they merit acknowledgment. We shouldn't delay 35 years.

Walter Franco
Walter Franco

A passionate interior designer and blogger sharing creative home solutions and modern living trends.