As any prominent awards ceremony draws close, there’s always an outcry to include of new categories to recognize underappreciated efforts and satisfy the spirits of fans dedicated to specific genres.
A fellow writer has already made for a horror game category. That would rule. Equally deserving are strategy board titles, representing a dedicated supporter's campaign. However, I must insist if I try to elbow in front just as with other single-minded supporters, I possess a compelling case for why my demand stands as crucial and important of all. The demand is this: It's essential to create a classification for brain-teasing titles.
The Genre Classification Challenge
Classifying creative works isn't exact; it’s very subjective, and it will always start arguments and end in fuzzy definitions. There’s a reason film award organizations don’t do it. However, it represents an unavoidable compromise in the world of gaming, which are so diverse they hardly constitute one unified medium.
For the full spectrum of interactive entertainment excellence to be recognized, and to ensure all game types to have a chance for representation, classification by type becomes crucial.
Present Award Structure
Leading game ceremonies presently include award types recognizing Action-oriented games, Action/Adventure, RPG experiences, Fighting, Simulation and strategy titles, plus athletic and racing experiences. Between them, these classifications effectively encompass numerous genres, and you can find room accommodating various experiences.
Not so for logic-based experiences. There’s simply nowhere to put them. Examine these examples from recent excellent titles, showing diverse approaches: structural challenges of one title, intense tile-matching from another release, engaging interpersonal challenges from additional release. Where could they possibly go among existing types? Nowhere, that’s where.
Recognition Challenges
Many instances occur outstanding logic titles released every year without proper recognition at major award shows, unless they happen to qualify award groups including Handheld titles, VR/AR Game, and the highly challenging small studio competitions.
- One classic puzzle game wasn’t nominated completely in 2014
- Another imaginative release was excluded that year
- A beloved organization game got ignored that year
- Just some brain-teasers managed to sneak into independent or mobile categories
Value of Brain-Teasers
Frequently they represent modest productions, but the art in brain-teasers carries substantial weight. Famous handheld logic titles rank among most engaged experiences in the world maintaining this status for over a decade.
The famous puzzle experience challenges popular creative games competing to become most purchased experience; it additionally competes for best game of all time. Brain-teasers form essential building blocks for gaming as medium, while interacting across multiple categories.
The Solution and Justification
Brain-teasers wouldn't encounter that issue. It would be easy to populate multiple candidates engaging, different, qualified experiences each ceremony simply — perhaps, with difficulty, because you’d have to leave many worthy titles.
Restating the point, these are games without proper classification in important events. Logic title developers operate at the challenging frontier of video game design, developing some of the purest expressions of the video game form. Just like cinema stunt performers, they merit acknowledgment. Let’s not keep them waiting decades.