The Iconic Puzzle Game Wouldn't Triumph at The Game Awards — A New Category Might Solve This

Whenever a prominent honors show approaches, there’s always an outcry to include of new categories to recognize unsung work and fill the spirits of fans dedicated to specific genres.

A fellow writer made the case for a horror game category. That would be fantastic. The same goes for tabletop games, representing a dedicated supporter's campaign. However, I must insist for pushing forward just as with other dedicated enthusiasts, I have a cast-iron argument backing this proposal remains most pressing and important of all. Here's the proposal: We need a classification for brain-teasing titles.

The Genre Classification Challenge

Categorizing art by genre isn't exact; opinions vary greatly, and inevitably start arguments and end in fuzzy definitions. There’s a reason film award organizations don’t do it. Yet it remains an unavoidable compromise in the world of interactive entertainment, which are so diverse it's challenging to consider them as a single art form.

To recognize the complete range of achievement in video games to be recognized, and to ensure all game types to receive proper recognition, specific award classifications remain vital.

Present Award Structure

Prominent interactive entertainment events offer these award types recognizing Action, Action/Adventure, RPG experiences, Fighting, Simulation and strategy titles, and Sports/Racing games. Between them, these award types effectively encompass a lot of ground, and you can find room for most games within them.

Not so for logic-based experiences. There’s simply nowhere to put them. Consider three of outstanding current releases, all very different: building puzzles in a particular game, fast-paced pattern recognition from another release, engaging interpersonal challenges from additional release. Which classification works among existing types? Nowhere, that’s where.

The Representation Problem

Numerous examples exist excellent brain-teasers published annually lacking appropriate categories in entertainment awards, if they accidentally match for categories like Mobile Game, Virtual reality experiences, or the extremely competitive Indie races.

• One classic puzzle game got overlooked completely in 2014
• Another imaginative release was excluded that year
• A beloved organization game got ignored that year
• Limited numbers of brain-teasers barely qualified for small studio or handheld classifications

Value of Brain-Teasers

Commonly they're small games, but the art of the puzzle game holds tremendous importance. Iconic mobile puzzle games count as the most-played games globally continuing this trend for an extended period.

The iconic tile-matching title rivals famous sandbox experiences for the title of best-selling game of all time; it’s also in the running for top gaming experience. Puzzle games are foundational to the art of video games, and engaging with almost every other genre.

Proposal and Rationale

Brain-teasers wouldn't encounter such difficulty. It would be easy to populate five nominees interesting, varied, worthy titles each ceremony simply — or rather, with difficulty, because you’d have to leave many worthy titles.

And to reiterate, these represent titles lacking appropriate categories during prominent ceremonies. Brain-teaser creators operate at the demanding boundary interactive creation, producing among essential manifestations of the video game form. Just like movie stunt professionals, they merit acknowledgment. Don't make them wait 35 years.