Each time a prominent prize-giving event draws close, you'll find a demand for the addition fresh award types to honor unsung work and satisfy the passions of enthusiasts with niche passions.
My colleague made the case supporting a scary games classification. It would be amazing. So would board games, representing a dedicated supporter's campaign. However, I must insist if I try to elbow in front because like all blinkered fanatics, I have a cast-iron argument supporting my request is the most urgent and significant. The demand is this: There should be an award type for logic-based games.
The Genre Classification Challenge
Categorizing art by genre defies precise measurement; it remains highly personal, and inevitably spark debates and end in fuzzy definitions. This explains why film award organizations don’t do it. Yet it remains a necessary evil for the industry of interactive entertainment, that demonstrate such variety they hardly constitute a single creative category.
For comprehensive acknowledgment of achievement in video games to receive acknowledgment, while allowing diverse titles to compete fairly, genre categories are essential.
Current Gaming Award Categories
Leading game ceremonies offer these genre categories for Action-oriented games, Action/Adventure, Role-Playing, Fighting, Sim/Strategy, and Sports/Racing games. Collectively, these classifications effectively encompass numerous genres, making space possible for most games within them.
Different situation exists for logic-based experiences. There’s simply nowhere to accommodate them. Think about these recent excellent titles, all very different: building puzzles of one title, intense tile-matching of another game, thought-provoking social scenarios of a third title. Which classification works within current classifications? Unfortunately, nowhere.
Recognition Challenges
Numerous examples exist excellent brain-teasers released every year without proper recognition at major award shows, if they accidentally match for categories like Mobile Game, VR/AR Game, and the highly challenging independent game categories.
- An iconic brain-teaser got overlooked completely during that awards season
- Another imaginative release missed out during that ceremony
- A beloved organization game got ignored in 2021
- Only a few logic titles managed to sneak into niche award types
Importance of Logic Titles
Frequently they represent small games, however the design of the puzzle game carries substantial weight. Well-known matching games rank among most engaged experiences in the world maintaining this status for over a decade.
The legendary block-stacking game challenges popular creative games competing to become highest-selling title ever; it also contends for top gaming experience. Logic titles represent cornerstones to the art of video games, while interacting with almost every other genre.
Proposal and Rationale
Brain-teasers wouldn't encounter this problem. You could fill five nominees interesting, varied, worthy titles every year with ease — or rather, with difficulty, given the need to exclude so many good games out.
And to reiterate, these are games without proper classification at major gaming awards. Brain-teaser creators are working at the demanding boundary interactive creation, creating some of essential manifestations of the video game form. Comparable to movie stunt professionals, they deserve recognition. Don't make them wait decades.
