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As any prominent awards ceremony approaches, you'll find a clamor for the addition fresh award types to recognize unsung work and satisfy the hearts of enthusiasts with niche passions.

My colleague has already made 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 for pushing forward since similar to single-minded supporters, I possess a compelling case backing this proposal remains most pressing above others. The demand is this: There should be a category for puzzle games.

The Genre Classification Challenge

Categorizing art by genre is not a science; it’s very subjective, and inevitably spark debates and end in fuzzy definitions. There’s a reason cinema institutions don’t do it. Yet it remains an essential concession for the industry of video games, that demonstrate such variety they hardly constitute a single creative category.

For comprehensive acknowledgment of gaming accomplishments to gain proper attention, and to ensure all game types to receive proper recognition, genre categories are essential.

Current Gaming Award Categories

Prominent interactive entertainment events presently include award types recognizing Action, Adventure-action titles, Role-Playing, Fighting, Sim/Strategy, plus athletic and racing experiences. Collectively, these six categories effectively encompass a lot of ground, and you can find room for most games within them.

Different situation exists for logic-based experiences. No appropriate category exists to accommodate them. Consider three of this year’s best games, each quite distinct: the architectural riddles from a specific release, the pulse-pounding block-matching of another game, thought-provoking social scenarios from additional release. Which classification works within current classifications? Nowhere, that’s where.

The Representation Problem

Many instances occur of brilliant puzzle games launched regularly that have no home during gaming ceremonies, except when they manage to fit for categories like Mobile Game, Virtual reality experiences, or the extremely competitive Indie races.

• One classic puzzle game received no recognition for anything during that awards season
• Another creative title was excluded that year
• Popular arranging title got ignored that year
• Just some brain-teasers scraped into niche award types

Importance of Logic Titles

Commonly they're compact experiences, however the design behind logic titles is of massive significance. Well-known matching games rank among most popular titles globally and have been for over a decade.

The legendary block-stacking game competes with popular creative games for the title of best-selling game of all time; it’s also in the running for best game of all time. Puzzle games are foundational to the art of video games, and engaging with almost every other genre.

Recommendation and Reasoning

Puzzle games wouldn’t have such difficulty. One could readily select a field of five engaging, different, qualified experiences annually without trouble — or rather, with difficulty, since numerous excellent many worthy titles.

And to reiterate, these include experiences without proper classification at major gaming awards. Puzzle game makers operate at the hard edge of video game design, developing some of the purest expressions of the video game form. Similar to movie stunt professionals, they merit acknowledgment. Don't make them wait generations.