Each time a major awards ceremony approaches, you'll find a clamor for introducing fresh award types to honor underappreciated efforts and satisfy the spirits of enthusiasts dedicated to specific genres.
My colleague previously argued advocating for terror-themed awards. That would be fantastic. The same goes for board games, this being a passionate advocate's mission. Yet I need to apologize in advance when I prioritize because like all blinkered fanatics, there's a strong justification backing this proposal remains most pressing and important of all. This is the request: It's essential to create an award type for logic-based games.
Organizing Gaming Categories
Organizing artistic expressions defies precise measurement; it’s very subjective, and inevitably start arguments and end in fuzzy definitions. This explains why film award organizations avoid this approach. However, it represents a necessary evil in the world of interactive entertainment, that demonstrate such variety they hardly constitute as a single art form.
For the full spectrum of gaming accomplishments to be recognized, while allowing diverse titles to have a chance for representation, classification by type becomes crucial.
Existing Game Classification System
Leading game ceremonies offer these award types recognizing Action-oriented games, Adventure-action titles, RPG experiences, Fighting, Simulation and strategy titles, plus athletic and racing experiences. Together, these six categories successfully include a lot of ground, making space possible accommodating various experiences.
Different situation exists for brain-teasing titles. No appropriate category exists to accommodate them. Consider three of recent excellent titles, all very different: structural challenges in a particular game, the pulse-pounding block-matching from another release, engaging interpersonal challenges from additional release. What category would fit them within current classifications? Nowhere, that’s where.
Acknowledgment Issues
Many instances occur of brilliant puzzle games released every year lacking appropriate categories during gaming ceremonies, unless they happen to qualify for categories like Handheld titles, VR/AR Game, or the intensely contested independent game categories.
- An iconic brain-teaser received no recognition in any category that year
- Another creative title missed out in 2019
- A beloved organization game was overlooked in 2021
- Just some brain-teasers managed to sneak into niche award types
Value of Brain-Teasers
Commonly they're modest productions, however the design in brain-teasers holds tremendous importance. Well-known matching games rank among most popular titles in the world continuing this trend for over a decade.
The legendary block-stacking game rivals well-known building titles for the title of best-selling game of all time; it also contends for top gaming experience. Brain-teasers form essential building blocks to the art of video games, and engaging with almost every other genre.
Recommendation and Reasoning
Puzzle games wouldn’t have such difficulty. You could fill multiple candidates with fascinating, diverse, deserving games annually without trouble — actually, with challenge, because you’d have to leave numerous deserving experiences.
To emphasize again, these are games without proper classification during prominent ceremonies. Logic title developers are working at the hard edge of video game design, developing some of most fundamental forms of the video game form. Similar to film action specialists, they deserve recognition. We shouldn't delay 35 years.
