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Each time a prominent prize-giving event approaches, you'll find a demand to include fresh award types to honor underappreciated efforts and delight the hearts of enthusiasts with niche passions.

A fellow writer has already made advocating for terror-themed awards. That would be fantastic. So would board games, this being someone's personal cause. Yet I need to apologize in advance when I prioritize because like all blinkered fanatics, I have a cast-iron argument for why my demand is the most urgent above others. The demand is this: It's essential to create an award type for logic-based games.

The Genre Classification Challenge

Categorizing art by genre isn't exact; opinions vary greatly, and inevitably generate discussions concluding with vague boundaries. It's understandable that movie academies steer clear of genre categories. However, it represents a necessary evil in the world of interactive entertainment, that demonstrate such variety they hardly constitute one unified medium.

For the full spectrum of achievement in video games 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

The major gaming awards currently feature award types recognizing Action-oriented games, Action/Adventure, Role-Playing, Combat games, Simulation and strategy titles, plus athletic and racing experiences. Collectively, these classifications successfully include numerous genres, allowing placement accommodating various experiences.

Not so for brain-teasing titles. There’s simply nowhere to accommodate them. Think about these recent excellent titles, all very different: the architectural riddles from a specific release, fast-paced pattern recognition of another game, engaging interpersonal challenges in another game. Where could they possibly go between these six categories? Simply put, no category fits.

Recognition Challenges

There are dozens excellent brain-teasers published annually lacking appropriate categories at major award shows, except when they manage to fit classification types such as Mobile Game, VR/AR Game, or the intensely contested Indie races.

• An iconic brain-teaser got overlooked completely during that awards season
• A different innovative game was excluded that year
• Popular arranging title was overlooked in 2021
• Limited numbers of brain-teasers managed to sneak into small studio or handheld classifications

Importance of Logic Titles

Frequently they represent small games, however the design behind logic titles carries substantial weight. Famous handheld logic titles rank among most engaged experiences in the world continuing this trend for an extended period.

The famous puzzle experience competes with popular creative games claiming status as best-selling game of all time; it’s also in the running for top gaming experience. Puzzle games are foundational within interactive entertainment, while interacting with diverse game types.

Proposal and Rationale

Logic titles wouldn't face such difficulty. It would be easy to populate five nominees with fascinating, diverse, deserving games every year with ease — actually, with challenge, given the need to exclude many worthy titles.

Restating the point, these include experiences that otherwise have no home at major gaming awards. Logic title developers function at the demanding boundary of video game design, producing among essential manifestations of the video game form. Just like cinema stunt performers, they deserve recognition. We shouldn't delay 35 years.