Each time a prominent awards ceremony draws close, you'll find a demand to include additional classifications to honor underappreciated efforts and fill the hearts of followers dedicated to specific genres.
My colleague made the case supporting a scary games classification. That would rule. Equally deserving are strategy board titles, which is a passionate advocate's mission. But they will have to forgive me if I try to elbow in front since similar to single-minded supporters, I have a cast-iron argument backing this proposal stands as crucial above others. This is the request: There should be a classification for brain-teasing titles.
Categorizing Game Types
Classifying creative works defies precise measurement; it remains highly personal, and inevitably start arguments resulting in unclear classifications. This explains why movie academies don’t do it. But it is a necessary evil within the realm of gaming, which are so diverse they hardly constitute as a single art form.
To recognize the complete range of interactive entertainment excellence to receive acknowledgment, while allowing diverse titles to receive proper recognition, genre categories are essential.
Present Award Structure
The major gaming awards presently include classifications covering Action-oriented games, Action/Adventure, RPG experiences, Combat games, Sim/Strategy, plus athletic and racing experiences. Collectively, these six categories successfully include numerous genres, allowing placement for most games within them.
Not so for brain-teasing titles. No suitable classification appears to put them. Think about these this year’s best games, showing diverse approaches: the architectural riddles from a specific release, the pulse-pounding block-matching in a different title, and the sweetly sociological logic puzzles in another game. Which classification works between these six categories? Simply put, no category fits.
The Representation Problem
There are dozens excellent brain-teasers published annually that have no home at major award shows, except when they manage to fit award groups including Mobile Game, VR/AR Game, or the intensely contested Indie races.
- A renowned logic title wasn’t nominated for anything in 2014
- A different innovative game received no nominations during that ceremony
- Well-received sorting experience received no acknowledgment recently
- Limited numbers of brain-teasers managed to sneak into independent or mobile categories
Value of Brain-Teasers
Frequently they represent small games, however the design of the puzzle game holds tremendous importance. Iconic mobile puzzle games stand as the most-played games globally maintaining this status for over a decade.
The famous puzzle experience competes with popular creative games for the title of most purchased experience; it’s also in the running for top gaming experience. Brain-teasers form essential building blocks to the art of video games, and they are in conversation across multiple categories.
Recommendation and Reasoning
Brain-teasers wouldn't encounter this problem. One could readily select a field of five engaging, different, qualified experiences every year with ease — actually, with challenge, because you’d have to leave numerous deserving experiences.
To emphasize again, these are games without proper classification during prominent ceremonies. Puzzle game makers operate at the challenging frontier of video game design, developing some of essential manifestations of the video game form. Comparable to film action specialists, they warrant appreciation. Let’s not keep them waiting decades.
