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As any prominent prize-giving event nears, you'll find a clamor to include additional classifications to acknowledge overlooked contributions and satisfy the hearts of fans with niche passions.

My colleague previously argued for a horror game category. That would be fantastic. Equally deserving are tabletop games, which is someone's personal cause. Yet I need to apologize in advance for pushing forward since similar to blinkered fanatics, I have a cast-iron argument backing this proposal stands as crucial and important of all. Here's the proposal: We need a classification for brain-teasing titles.

Organizing Gaming Categories

Categorizing art by genre isn't exact; opinions vary greatly, and it will always start arguments concluding with vague boundaries. It's understandable that movie academies avoid this approach. Yet it remains a necessary evil in the world of interactive entertainment, that demonstrate such variety they barely qualify as a single art form.

For comprehensive acknowledgment of gaming accomplishments to gain proper attention, and to ensure all game types to have a chance for representation, classification by type becomes crucial.

Current Gaming Award Categories

Prominent interactive entertainment events offer these award types recognizing Action-oriented games, Adventure-action titles, RPG experiences, Combat games, Simulation and strategy titles, and Sports/Racing games. Collectively, these six categories actually cover a lot of ground, making space possible accommodating various experiences.

Different situation exists for brain-teasing titles. No suitable classification appears to put them. Think about these this year’s best games, all very different: structural challenges of one title, the pulse-pounding block-matching of another game, and the sweetly sociological logic puzzles in another game. What category would fit them between these six categories? Nowhere, that’s where.

Acknowledgment Issues

Numerous examples exist outstanding logic titles launched regularly without proper recognition at major award shows, unless they happen to qualify award groups including Handheld titles, Virtual reality experiences, or the intensely contested Indie races.

• One classic puzzle game received no recognition completely that year
• Another creative title missed out in 2019
• A beloved organization game received no acknowledgment recently
• Just some brain-teasers managed to sneak into niche award types

Value of Brain-Teasers

Frequently they represent small games, yet the craft behind logic titles carries substantial weight. Well-known matching games count as most engaged experiences worldwide and have been for over a decade.

The iconic tile-matching title challenges popular creative games claiming status as highest-selling title ever; it’s also in the running for top gaming experience. Brain-teasers form essential building blocks for gaming as medium, while interacting with diverse game types.

Proposal and Rationale

Logic titles wouldn't face this problem. You could fill five nominees engaging, different, qualified experiences every year with ease — perhaps, with difficulty, because you’d have to leave many worthy titles.

And to reiterate, these are games without proper classification at major gaming awards. Puzzle game makers are working at the challenging frontier interactive creation, producing among the purest expressions of the video game form. Similar to movie stunt professionals, they warrant appreciation. Let’s not keep them waiting generations.