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As any major awards ceremony nears, there’s always a demand to include of new categories to recognize unsung work and fill the passions of fans dedicated to specific genres.

Another commentator made the case advocating for terror-themed awards. It would be amazing. The same goes for board games, representing a passionate advocate's mission. Yet I need to apologize in advance for pushing forward just as with other single-minded supporters, I have a cast-iron argument supporting my request is the most urgent and important of all. The demand is this: We need an award type for logic-based games.

The Genre Classification Challenge

Organizing artistic expressions defies precise measurement; it’s very subjective, and inevitably spark debates concluding with vague boundaries. There’s a reason cinema institutions avoid this approach. However, it represents an essential concession within the realm of video games, which are so diverse it's challenging to consider them as a single art form.

To recognize the complete range of gaming accomplishments to be recognized, and for games of all stripes to receive proper recognition, classification by type becomes crucial.

Current Gaming Award Categories

Prominent interactive entertainment events presently include award types recognizing Action, Adventure-action titles, RPG experiences, Combat games, Sim/Strategy, and Sports/Racing games. Between them, these award types effectively encompass a lot of ground, making space possible for numerous titles.

Not so for logic-based experiences. There’s simply nowhere to accommodate them. Examine these examples from recent excellent titles, each quite distinct: the architectural riddles of one title, the pulse-pounding block-matching from another release, thought-provoking social scenarios from additional release. Where could they possibly go among existing types? Nowhere, that’s where.

Acknowledgment Issues

Many instances occur outstanding logic titles released every year lacking appropriate categories during gaming ceremonies, except when they manage to fit classification types such as Handheld titles, VR/AR Game, or the extremely competitive small studio competitions.

• A renowned logic title got overlooked completely in 2014
• Another imaginative release received no nominations in 2019
• Well-received sorting experience got ignored that year
• Only a few logic titles scraped into independent or mobile categories

Significance of Puzzle Games

These are often modest productions, but the art in brain-teasers is of massive significance. Well-known matching games rank among most popular titles in the world and have been for over a decade.

The famous puzzle experience rivals popular creative games for the title of highest-selling title ever; it additionally competes for best game of all time. Puzzle games are foundational for gaming as medium, while interacting with almost every other genre.

The Solution and Justification

Logic titles wouldn't face this problem. You could fill multiple candidates engaging, different, qualified experiences each ceremony simply — perhaps, with difficulty, given the need to exclude many worthy titles.

To emphasize again, these represent titles that otherwise have no home at major gaming awards. Brain-teaser creators are working at the challenging frontier game development, creating some of essential manifestations within interactive entertainment. Similar to movie stunt professionals, they warrant appreciation. Let’s not keep them waiting 35 years.