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Whenever a major honors show draws close, you'll find a clamor to include fresh award types to recognize underappreciated efforts and delight the spirits of fans with niche passions.

My colleague previously argued advocating for terror-themed awards. It would be amazing. Equally deserving are strategy board titles, representing someone's personal cause. Yet I need to apologize in advance if I try to elbow in front because like all blinkered fanatics, there's a strong justification backing this proposal stands as crucial and significant. The demand is this: There should be a classification for brain-teasing titles.

Organizing Gaming Categories

Classifying creative works defies precise measurement; it’s very subjective, and typically start arguments concluding with vague boundaries. There’s a reason film award organizations avoid this approach. But it is an unavoidable compromise within the realm of gaming, which are so diverse they barely qualify as a single art form.

To recognize the complete range of interactive entertainment excellence to be recognized, and for games of all stripes to compete fairly, classification by type becomes crucial.

Current Gaming Award Categories

The major gaming awards currently feature genre categories for Action-oriented games, Action/Adventure, RPG experiences, Combat games, Simulation and strategy titles, and Sports/Racing games. Together, these award types successfully include many game types, allowing placement accommodating various experiences.

Different situation exists for puzzle games. No suitable classification appears to put them. Think about these this year’s best games, each quite distinct: the architectural riddles of one title, intense tile-matching in a different title, thought-provoking social scenarios of a third title. Which classification works within current classifications? Unfortunately, nowhere.

Acknowledgment Issues

Numerous examples exist excellent brain-teasers published annually lacking appropriate categories in entertainment awards, except when they manage to fit for categories like Handheld titles, VR/AR Game, and the highly challenging small studio competitions.

• An iconic brain-teaser wasn’t nominated for anything in 2014
• A different innovative game missed out in 2019
• Popular arranging title was overlooked in 2021
• Limited numbers of brain-teasers barely qualified for independent or mobile categories

Value of Brain-Teasers

Commonly they're small games, but the art in brain-teasers is of massive significance. Iconic mobile puzzle games rank among the most-played games in the world continuing this trend for many years.

The legendary block-stacking game rivals famous sandbox experiences competing to become highest-selling title ever; it’s also in the running for best game of all time. Brain-teasers form essential building blocks within interactive entertainment, while interacting across multiple categories.

Recommendation and Reasoning

Puzzle games wouldn’t have that issue. One could readily select a field of five interesting, varied, worthy titles each ceremony simply — perhaps, with difficulty, given the need to exclude so many good games out.

To emphasize again, these are games without proper classification during prominent ceremonies. Logic title developers operate at the hard edge of video game design, creating some of the purest expressions within interactive entertainment. Comparable to film action specialists, they merit acknowledgment. Don't make them wait generations.