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Whenever a major awards ceremony nears, you'll find an outcry for introducing of new categories to recognize unsung work and delight the spirits of followers who have specialized interests.

My colleague made the case for a horror game category. It would be amazing. The same goes for strategy board titles, which is a dedicated supporter's campaign. However, I must insist when I prioritize just as with other blinkered fanatics, there's a strong justification for why my demand stands as crucial above others. Here's the proposal: We need an award type for logic-based games.

The Genre Classification Challenge

Organizing artistic expressions defies precise measurement; opinions vary greatly, and inevitably start arguments concluding with vague boundaries. There’s a reason movie academies avoid this approach. But it is a necessary evil for the industry of gaming, that demonstrate such variety they barely qualify one unified medium.

To recognize the complete range of interactive entertainment excellence to be recognized, and for games of all stripes to receive proper recognition, genre categories are essential.

Current Gaming Award Categories

Prominent interactive entertainment events presently include award types recognizing Action-oriented games, Action/Adventure, Role-Playing, Fighting, Sim/Strategy, and Sports/Racing games. Together, these award types actually cover a lot of ground, and you can find room accommodating various experiences.

Not so for brain-teasing titles. No suitable classification appears to accommodate them. Examine these examples from this year’s best games, showing diverse approaches: the architectural riddles from a specific release, intense tile-matching of another game, and the sweetly sociological logic puzzles in another game. What category would fit them within current classifications? Unfortunately, nowhere.

Acknowledgment Issues

Many instances occur excellent brain-teasers launched regularly without proper recognition in entertainment awards, if they accidentally match classification types such as Handheld titles, Virtual reality experiences, or the intensely contested independent game categories.

• A renowned logic title received no recognition completely during that awards season
• Another imaginative release was excluded in 2019
• Popular arranging title received no acknowledgment recently
• Only a few puzzle games scraped into small studio or handheld classifications

Significance of Puzzle Games

Frequently they represent modest productions, however the design behind logic titles carries substantial weight. Iconic mobile puzzle games rank among most popular titles globally and have been for an extended period.

The famous puzzle experience rivals famous sandbox experiences competing to become most purchased experience; it additionally competes as greatest title ever. Brain-teasers form essential building blocks within interactive entertainment, and they are in conversation with almost every other genre.

The Solution and Justification

Puzzle games wouldn’t have this problem. One could readily select multiple candidates with fascinating, diverse, deserving games annually without trouble — or rather, with difficulty, given the need to exclude many worthy titles.

And to reiterate, these are games that otherwise have no home during prominent ceremonies. Puzzle game makers are working at the challenging frontier interactive creation, producing among the purest expressions of gaming itself. Similar to cinema stunt performers, they deserve recognition. Let’s not keep them waiting decades.