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Whenever a prominent honors show nears, there’s always an outcry for introducing fresh award types to recognize overlooked contributions and delight the spirits of enthusiasts dedicated to specific genres.

A fellow writer has already made advocating for terror-themed awards. That would be fantastic. Equally deserving are strategy board titles, representing a dedicated supporter's campaign. But they will have to forgive me for pushing forward since similar to blinkered fanatics, I possess a compelling case backing this proposal is the most urgent above others. This is the request: We need an award type for logic-based games.

The Genre Classification Challenge

Categorizing art by genre is not a science; opinions vary greatly, and inevitably start arguments resulting in unclear classifications. There’s a reason movie academies avoid this approach. However, it represents an unavoidable compromise within the realm of gaming, that demonstrate such variety they barely qualify a single creative category.

To recognize the complete range of interactive entertainment excellence to gain proper attention, while allowing diverse titles to have a chance for representation, genre categories are essential.

Existing Game Classification System

Leading game ceremonies offer these classifications covering Action, Action/Adventure, Role-Playing, Combat games, Sim/Strategy, and Sports/Racing games. Between them, these classifications effectively encompass many game types, and you can find room for most games within them.

Not so for brain-teasing titles. No appropriate category exists for their placement. Consider three of this year’s best games, all very different: structural challenges of one title, the pulse-pounding block-matching of another game, engaging interpersonal challenges in another game. What category would fit them among existing types? Unfortunately, nowhere.

Recognition Challenges

There are dozens of brilliant puzzle games published annually lacking appropriate categories during gaming ceremonies, unless they happen to qualify for categories like Handheld titles, Virtual reality experiences, or the intensely contested small studio competitions.

• One classic puzzle game received no recognition in any category that year
• Another imaginative release was excluded during that ceremony
• A beloved organization game was overlooked recently
• Limited numbers of brain-teasers managed to sneak into niche award types

Value of Brain-Teasers

Commonly they're compact experiences, however the design behind logic titles holds tremendous importance. Iconic mobile puzzle games rank among most popular titles globally and have been for over a decade.

The famous puzzle experience competes with popular creative games claiming status as highest-selling title ever; it’s also in the running for best game of all time. Logic titles represent cornerstones to the art of video games, and engaging with diverse game types.

Proposal and Rationale

Puzzle games wouldn’t have such difficulty. It would be easy to populate multiple candidates with fascinating, diverse, deserving games every year with ease — or rather, with difficulty, given the need to exclude numerous deserving experiences.

And to reiterate, these represent titles without proper classification during prominent ceremonies. Logic title developers operate at the hard edge of video game design, producing among the purest expressions within interactive entertainment. Just like cinema stunt performers, they deserve recognition. Don't make them wait decades.