Tetris Wouldn't Succeed at The Game Awards — Another Award Type May Address This Issue

As any significant prize-giving event nears, you'll find a demand for the addition of new categories to recognize unsung work and fill the passions of fans dedicated to specific genres.

Another commentator previously argued advocating for terror-themed awards. That would rule. So would strategy board titles, which is a passionate advocate's mission. However, I must insist if I try to elbow in front because like all blinkered fanatics, I possess a compelling case backing this proposal stands as crucial above others. Here's the proposal: There should be a classification for brain-teasing titles.

Organizing Gaming Categories

Categorizing art by genre is not a science; it’s very subjective, and typically start arguments and end in fuzzy definitions. There’s a reason film award organizations avoid this approach. However, it represents an essential concession for the industry of video games, which are so diverse they barely qualify a single creative category.

To recognize the complete range of gaming accomplishments to gain proper attention, and for games of all stripes to have a chance for representation, specific award classifications remain vital.

Current Gaming Award Categories

Leading game ceremonies currently feature award types recognizing Action, Action/Adventure, Role-Playing, Fighting, Simulation and strategy titles, and Sports/Racing games. Between them, these six categories effectively encompass numerous genres, making space possible for numerous titles.

This doesn't apply to puzzle games. No suitable classification appears to put them. Examine these examples from recent excellent titles, showing diverse approaches: building puzzles from a specific release, fast-paced pattern recognition of another game, thought-provoking social scenarios from additional release. Which classification works within current classifications? Nowhere, that’s where.

Recognition Challenges

Numerous examples exist excellent brain-teasers published annually lacking appropriate categories in entertainment awards, if they accidentally match award groups including Mobile Game, VR/AR Game, and the highly challenging small studio competitions.

• One classic puzzle game received no recognition in any category in 2014
• Another imaginative release received no nominations that year
• Popular arranging title got ignored in 2021
• Limited numbers of puzzle games barely qualified for independent or mobile categories

Importance of Logic Titles

Commonly they're small games, yet the craft of the puzzle game holds tremendous importance. Iconic mobile puzzle games stand as most engaged experiences in the world maintaining this status for over a decade.

The famous puzzle experience competes with well-known building titles competing to become highest-selling title ever; it’s also in the running for best game of all time. Logic titles represent cornerstones for gaming as medium, and they are in conversation with almost every other genre.

Proposal and Rationale

Brain-teasers wouldn't encounter that issue. It would be easy to populate five nominees with fascinating, diverse, deserving games each ceremony simply — or rather, with difficulty, because you’d have to leave many worthy titles.

To emphasize again, these are games without proper classification during prominent ceremonies. Brain-teaser creators operate at the challenging frontier of video game design, creating some of most fundamental forms of the video game form. Just like movie stunt professionals, they merit acknowledgment. Don't make them wait 35 years.