🔗 Share this article

Each time a prominent honors show nears, you'll find a demand to include of new categories to recognize overlooked contributions and fill the passions of followers with niche passions.

Another commentator made the case for a horror game category. It would be amazing. So would strategy board titles, this being a passionate advocate's mission. Yet I need to apologize in advance when I prioritize since similar to dedicated enthusiasts, there's a strong justification for why my demand stands as crucial and important of all. This is the request: There should be a category for puzzle games.

Categorizing Game Types

Organizing artistic expressions is not a science; opinions vary greatly, and it will always spark debates and end in fuzzy definitions. This explains why film award organizations steer clear of genre categories. However, it represents an essential concession for the industry of interactive entertainment, that demonstrate such variety they barely qualify a single creative category.

For the full spectrum of interactive entertainment excellence to gain proper attention, and for games of all stripes to receive proper recognition, classification by type becomes crucial.

Present Award Structure

The major gaming awards currently feature classifications covering Action-oriented games, Adventure-action titles, Role-Playing, Combat games, Sim/Strategy, and Sports/Racing games. Together, these classifications successfully include a lot of ground, and you can find room for numerous titles.

Not so for logic-based experiences. No appropriate category exists to put them. Examine these examples from this year’s best games, all very different: structural challenges in a particular game, the pulse-pounding block-matching in a different title, and the sweetly sociological logic puzzles of a third title. What category would fit them within current classifications? Unfortunately, nowhere.

Recognition Challenges

There are dozens outstanding logic titles launched regularly lacking appropriate categories at major award shows, except when they manage to fit classification types such as Mobile Game, VR/AR Game, or the extremely competitive small studio competitions.

• One classic puzzle game got overlooked in any category during that awards season
• A different innovative game received no nominations that year
• Popular arranging title was overlooked recently
• Just some brain-teasers managed to sneak into independent or mobile categories

Importance of Logic Titles

These are often small games, yet the craft in brain-teasers carries substantial weight. Iconic mobile puzzle games count as most engaged experiences in the world maintaining this status for many years.

The legendary block-stacking game rivals popular creative games competing to become best-selling game of all time; it’s also in the running for top gaming experience. Brain-teasers form essential building blocks to the art of video games, and engaging across multiple categories.

Recommendation and Reasoning

Logic titles wouldn't face such difficulty. One could readily select a field of five interesting, varied, worthy titles each ceremony simply — actually, with challenge, because you’d have to leave many worthy titles.

Restating the point, these include experiences without proper classification during prominent ceremonies. Puzzle game makers function at the challenging frontier game development, creating some of the purest expressions of the video game form. Just like film action specialists, they merit acknowledgment. We shouldn't delay decades.