Each time a major prize-giving event draws close, one notices an outcry for the addition fresh award types to recognize underappreciated efforts and fill the spirits of followers with niche passions.
My colleague made the case supporting a scary games classification. That would be fantastic. The same goes for strategy board titles, this being a passionate advocate's mission. Yet I need to apologize in advance if I try to elbow in front because like all single-minded supporters, there's a strong justification supporting my request remains most pressing and significant. This is the request: There should be an award type for logic-based games.
Organizing Gaming Categories
Classifying creative works isn't exact; it remains highly personal, and inevitably generate discussions resulting in unclear classifications. There’s a reason movie academies steer clear of genre categories. However, it represents an essential concession within the realm of gaming, which are so diverse it's challenging to consider them a single creative category.
To recognize the complete range of gaming accomplishments to be recognized, and to ensure all game types to receive proper recognition, specific award classifications remain vital.
Present Award Structure
The major gaming awards currently feature classifications covering Action, Adventure-action titles, Role-Playing, Combat games, Simulation and strategy titles, plus athletic and racing experiences. Collectively, these six categories successfully include numerous genres, allowing placement accommodating various experiences.
Not so for logic-based experiences. No appropriate category exists to put them. Think about these recent excellent titles, each quite distinct: the architectural riddles of one title, the pulse-pounding block-matching in a different title, and the sweetly sociological logic puzzles in another game. Which classification works among existing types? Unfortunately, nowhere.
Recognition Challenges
Numerous examples exist excellent brain-teasers published annually lacking appropriate categories during gaming ceremonies, except when they manage to fit classification types such as Handheld titles, VR/AR Game, or the extremely competitive independent game categories.
- An iconic brain-teaser received no recognition in any category during that awards season
- A different innovative game was excluded during that ceremony
- Well-received sorting experience was overlooked in 2021
- Limited numbers of logic titles managed to sneak into niche award types
Importance of Logic Titles
Frequently they represent small games, however the design in brain-teasers carries substantial weight. Iconic mobile puzzle games rank among most popular titles worldwide and have been for over a decade.
The famous puzzle experience competes with famous sandbox experiences claiming status as best-selling game of all time; it also contends for best game of all time. Brain-teasers form essential building blocks to the art of video games, and engaging across multiple categories.
Proposal and Rationale
Puzzle games wouldn’t have this problem. You could fill a field of five engaging, different, qualified experiences annually without trouble — or rather, with difficulty, because you’d have to leave many worthy titles.
Restating the point, these are games that otherwise have no home at major gaming awards. Logic title developers function at the demanding boundary game development, creating some of most fundamental forms of gaming itself. Similar to cinema stunt performers, they merit acknowledgment. Let’s not keep them waiting generations.
