Whenever a significant honors show approaches, you'll find an outcry to include of new categories to acknowledge unsung work and fill the spirits of enthusiasts who have specialized interests.
My colleague has already made for a horror game category. That would rule. So would tabletop games, which is a dedicated supporter's campaign. Yet I need to apologize in advance for pushing forward since similar to dedicated enthusiasts, there's a strong justification supporting my request stands as crucial and important of all. The demand is this: We need an award type for logic-based games.
Categorizing Game Types
Organizing artistic expressions is not a science; it remains highly personal, and inevitably start arguments and end in fuzzy definitions. There’s a reason movie academies steer clear of genre categories. But it is an unavoidable compromise within the realm of gaming, showing incredible range they barely qualify as a single art form.
To recognize the complete range of interactive entertainment excellence to be recognized, and for games of all stripes to compete fairly, genre categories are essential.
Existing Game Classification System
Prominent interactive entertainment events currently feature award types recognizing Action, Action/Adventure, RPG experiences, Fighting, Simulation and strategy titles, plus athletic and racing experiences. Together, these classifications effectively encompass a lot of ground, and you can find room accommodating various experiences.
This doesn't apply to logic-based experiences. No appropriate category exists to put them. Consider three of this year’s best games, all very different: structural challenges of one title, fast-paced pattern recognition of another game, thought-provoking social scenarios in another game. Which classification works within current classifications? Nowhere, that’s where.
Recognition Challenges
Many instances occur of brilliant puzzle games launched regularly that have no home at major award shows, unless they happen to qualify classification types such as Handheld titles, Virtual reality experiences, or the intensely contested small studio competitions.
- An iconic brain-teaser received no recognition in any category in 2014
- A different innovative game missed out in 2019
- A beloved organization game was overlooked recently
- Limited numbers of brain-teasers managed to sneak into niche award types
Importance of Logic Titles
Commonly they're compact experiences, yet the craft in brain-teasers is of massive significance. Famous handheld logic titles rank among the most-played games in the world and have been for many years.
The famous puzzle experience challenges well-known building titles for the title of most purchased experience; it additionally competes for best game of all time. Puzzle games are foundational to the art of video games, and they are in conversation across multiple categories.
The Solution and Justification
Logic titles wouldn't face this problem. It would be easy to populate multiple candidates interesting, varied, worthy titles every year with ease — or rather, with difficulty, given the need to exclude many worthy titles.
To emphasize again, these include experiences lacking appropriate categories in important events. Puzzle game makers are working at the demanding boundary of video game design, creating some of most fundamental forms of gaming itself. Similar to movie stunt professionals, they deserve recognition. Let’s not keep them waiting decades.
