Skip to content
OpenUpdate

Tetris Couldn't Win at The Game Awards — An Additional Classification Could Fix That

As any significant prize-giving event nears, there’s always an outcry for introducing fresh award types to honor unsung work and fill the passions of fans dedicated to specific genres.

Another commentator has already made supporting a scary games classification. That would rule. Equally deserving are strategy board titles, this being a passionate advocate's mission. But they will have to forgive me for pushing forward since similar to single-minded supporters, I have a cast-iron argument backing this proposal stands as crucial and significant. This is the request: We need a classification for brain-teasing titles.

Organizing Gaming Categories

Categorizing art by genre is not a science; opinions vary greatly, and typically generate discussions concluding with vague boundaries. There’s a reason film award organizations avoid this approach. But it is an unavoidable compromise in the world of gaming, showing incredible range they hardly constitute one unified medium.

To recognize the complete range of interactive entertainment excellence to be recognized, and for games of all stripes to receive proper recognition, genre categories are essential.

Present Award Structure

Prominent interactive entertainment events currently feature award types recognizing Action-oriented games, Action/Adventure, RPG experiences, Fighting, Simulation and strategy titles, and Sports/Racing games. Between them, these six categories effectively encompass a lot of ground, allowing placement accommodating various experiences.

This doesn't apply to brain-teasing titles. There’s simply nowhere to accommodate them. Think about these this year’s best games, showing diverse approaches: building puzzles of one title, intense tile-matching of another game, engaging interpersonal challenges in another game. Where could they possibly go among existing types? Unfortunately, nowhere.

Acknowledgment Issues

There are dozens outstanding logic titles released every year without proper recognition in entertainment awards, unless they happen to qualify award groups including Mobile Game, VR/AR Game, and the highly challenging independent game categories.

  • An iconic brain-teaser got overlooked for anything in 2014
  • Another imaginative release missed out in 2019
  • A beloved organization game received no acknowledgment that year
  • Just some logic titles barely qualified for independent or mobile categories

Value of Brain-Teasers

Frequently they represent compact experiences, but the art in brain-teasers carries substantial weight. Iconic mobile puzzle games rank among the most-played games worldwide continuing this trend for an extended period.

The iconic tile-matching title competes with famous sandbox experiences for the title of most purchased experience; it additionally competes as greatest title ever. Logic titles represent cornerstones within interactive entertainment, and they are in conversation with diverse game types.

The Solution and Justification

Logic titles wouldn't face such difficulty. You could fill multiple candidates interesting, varied, worthy titles each ceremony simply — actually, with challenge, given the need to exclude so many good games out.

To emphasize again, these represent titles lacking appropriate categories during prominent ceremonies. Puzzle game makers are working at the hard edge game development, creating some of the purest expressions of the video game form. Similar to film action specialists, they deserve recognition. We shouldn't delay decades.

The writer

Samuel Howe

A tech journalist with over a decade of experience covering software innovations and digital transformations.

OpenUpdate

Type to search articles.