🔗 Share this article

As any prominent prize-giving event nears, you'll find an outcry to include additional classifications to recognize unsung work and delight the spirits of enthusiasts who have specialized interests.

My colleague previously argued advocating for terror-themed awards. That would rule. So would tabletop games, representing someone's personal cause. Yet I need to apologize in advance when I prioritize since similar to dedicated enthusiasts, I possess a compelling case for why my demand is the most urgent above others. The demand is this: It's essential to create a category for puzzle games.

Organizing Gaming Categories

Classifying creative works isn't exact; it remains highly personal, and it will always generate discussions and end in fuzzy definitions. There’s a reason cinema institutions avoid this approach. Yet it remains a necessary evil in the world of video games, that demonstrate such variety they hardly constitute 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, genre categories are essential.

Existing Game Classification System

Leading game ceremonies currently feature award types recognizing Action-oriented games, Adventure-action titles, RPG experiences, Fighting, Sim/Strategy, and Sports/Racing games. Together, these award types actually cover numerous genres, making space possible for most games within them.

Not so for puzzle games. No suitable classification appears for their placement. Examine these examples from recent excellent titles, each quite distinct: building puzzles from a specific release, the pulse-pounding block-matching from another release, thought-provoking social scenarios of a third title. What category would fit them within current classifications? Simply put, no category fits.

The Representation Problem

There are dozens of brilliant puzzle games released every year without proper recognition at major award shows, except when they manage to fit for categories like Mobile Game, VR/AR Game, or the intensely contested independent game categories.

• One classic puzzle game wasn’t nominated completely in 2014
• Another creative title missed out during that ceremony
• A beloved organization game received no acknowledgment recently
• Limited numbers of brain-teasers barely qualified for niche award types

Value of Brain-Teasers

Commonly they're small games, yet the craft of the puzzle game holds tremendous importance. Iconic mobile puzzle games stand as the most-played games worldwide maintaining this status for many years.

The legendary block-stacking game competes with well-known building titles for the title of most purchased experience; it also contends as greatest title ever. Brain-teasers form essential building blocks to the art of video games, and engaging with diverse game types.

Proposal and Rationale

Puzzle games wouldn’t have such difficulty. It would be easy to populate five nominees interesting, varied, worthy titles annually without trouble — perhaps, with difficulty, because you’d have to leave many worthy titles.

To emphasize again, these include experiences lacking appropriate categories in important events. Puzzle game makers are working at the challenging frontier of video game design, creating some of most fundamental forms of the video game form. Comparable to cinema stunt performers, they merit acknowledgment. Don't make them wait decades.