As any significant prize-giving event draws close, there’s always an outcry for the addition additional classifications to recognize underappreciated efforts and satisfy the passions of followers with niche passions.
My colleague previously argued supporting a scary games classification. That would rule. Equally deserving are strategy board titles, representing someone's personal cause. Yet I need to apologize in advance when I prioritize because like all blinkered fanatics, I possess a compelling case supporting my request stands as crucial and significant. This is the request: We need a classification for brain-teasing titles.
The Genre Classification Challenge
Categorizing art by genre isn't exact; opinions vary greatly, and it will always spark debates concluding with vague boundaries. It's understandable that film award organizations don’t do it. But it is a necessary evil within the realm of interactive entertainment, showing incredible range they barely qualify as a single art form.
For comprehensive acknowledgment of interactive entertainment excellence to gain proper attention, and for games of all stripes to have a chance for representation, specific award classifications remain vital.
Present Award Structure
Leading game ceremonies presently include genre categories for Action, Action/Adventure, Role-Playing, Fighting, Simulation and strategy titles, and Sports/Racing games. Collectively, these classifications successfully include a lot of ground, allowing placement for most games within them.
Not so for logic-based experiences. No appropriate category exists for their placement. Examine these examples from recent excellent titles, showing diverse approaches: structural challenges from a specific release, intense tile-matching in a different title, engaging interpersonal challenges from additional release. What category would fit them among existing types? Simply put, no category fits.
Recognition Challenges
Many instances occur outstanding logic titles released every year that have no home in entertainment awards, except when they manage to fit for categories like Mobile Game, VR/AR Game, or the intensely contested Indie races.
- One classic puzzle game received no recognition in any category during that awards season
- Another creative title was excluded that year
- A beloved organization game got ignored in 2021
- Limited numbers of logic titles scraped into niche award types
Importance of Logic Titles
Frequently they represent modest productions, yet the craft behind logic titles holds tremendous importance. Well-known matching games rank among the most-played games worldwide maintaining this status for over a decade.
The famous puzzle experience challenges well-known building titles claiming status as highest-selling title ever; it also contends for best game of all time. Logic titles represent cornerstones to the art of video games, and they are in conversation with almost every other genre.
The Solution and Justification
Puzzle games wouldn’t have that issue. It would be easy to populate multiple candidates interesting, varied, worthy titles each ceremony simply — perhaps, with difficulty, because you’d have to leave many worthy titles.
Restating the point, these include experiences lacking appropriate categories during prominent ceremonies. Logic title developers operate at the hard edge of video game design, developing some of most fundamental forms of the video game form. Comparable to movie stunt professionals, they warrant appreciation. Don't make them wait 35 years.
