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Each time a significant prize-giving event nears, there’s always a demand for the addition of new categories to honor underappreciated efforts and satisfy the hearts of fans with niche passions.

A fellow writer made the case advocating for terror-themed awards. That would be fantastic. Equally deserving are board games, this being a dedicated supporter's campaign. But they will have to forgive me for pushing forward because like all single-minded supporters, I possess a compelling case backing this proposal stands as crucial and significant. Here's the proposal: There should be a classification for brain-teasing titles.

Organizing Gaming Categories

Classifying creative works is not a science; opinions vary greatly, and inevitably spark debates and end in fuzzy definitions. There’s a reason cinema institutions don’t do it. But it is an unavoidable compromise within the realm of interactive entertainment, showing incredible range it's challenging to consider them as a single art form.

For the full spectrum of gaming accomplishments to receive acknowledgment, while allowing diverse titles to have a chance for representation, classification by type becomes crucial.

Present Award Structure

Prominent interactive entertainment events offer these award types recognizing Action-oriented games, Adventure-action titles, RPG experiences, Combat games, Sim/Strategy, and Sports/Racing games. Together, these classifications successfully include a lot of ground, allowing placement for most games within them.

Different situation exists for puzzle games. No appropriate category exists to put them. Think about these recent excellent titles, showing diverse approaches: structural challenges in a particular game, intense tile-matching from another release, thought-provoking social scenarios in another game. Where could they possibly go among existing types? Simply put, no category fits.

The Representation Problem

There are dozens excellent brain-teasers released every year without proper recognition during gaming ceremonies, except when they manage to fit for categories like Handheld titles, VR/AR Game, and the highly challenging small studio competitions.

• One classic puzzle game received no recognition completely in 2014
• Another creative title was excluded in 2019
• A beloved organization game received no acknowledgment in 2021
• Only a few brain-teasers barely qualified for small studio or handheld classifications

Value of Brain-Teasers

These are often compact experiences, yet the craft in brain-teasers holds tremendous importance. Iconic mobile puzzle games stand as most engaged experiences globally and have been for over a decade.

The famous puzzle experience competes with well-known building titles competing to become best-selling game of all time; it additionally competes as greatest title ever. Puzzle games are foundational to the art of video games, and they are in conversation with diverse game types.

Proposal and Rationale

Puzzle games wouldn’t have that issue. It would be easy to populate multiple candidates engaging, different, qualified experiences every year with ease — perhaps, with difficulty, given the need to exclude so many good games out.

And to reiterate, these include experiences without proper classification at major gaming awards. Puzzle game makers function at the demanding boundary of video game design, producing among essential manifestations of gaming itself. Just like movie stunt professionals, they deserve recognition. Don't make them wait 35 years.