Skip to content
Explore cutting-edge technology trends, digital innovations…

Tetris Couldn't Win at The Game Awards — A New Category May Address This Issue

Whenever a prominent honors show approaches, there’s always a clamor for the addition of new categories to recognize underappreciated efforts and fill the passions of fans dedicated to specific genres.

Another commentator has already made advocating for terror-themed awards. That would be fantastic. The same goes for tabletop games, this being a dedicated supporter's campaign. But they will have to forgive me if I try to elbow in front because like all blinkered fanatics, there's a strong justification supporting my request stands as crucial and important of all. This is the request: It's essential to create a category for puzzle games.

Organizing Gaming Categories

Categorizing art by genre isn't exact; it remains highly personal, and typically spark debates concluding with vague boundaries. It's understandable that film award organizations steer clear of genre categories. Yet it remains a necessary evil in the world of interactive entertainment, showing incredible range it's challenging to consider them a single creative category.

For the full spectrum of gaming accomplishments to be recognized, and for games of all stripes to have a chance for representation, classification by type becomes crucial.

Current Gaming Award Categories

Leading game ceremonies offer these award types recognizing Action-oriented games, Action/Adventure, RPG experiences, Fighting, Simulation and strategy titles, plus athletic and racing experiences. Collectively, these six categories successfully include many game types, allowing placement for most games within them.

This doesn't apply to brain-teasing titles. There’s simply nowhere for their placement. Consider three of recent excellent titles, showing diverse approaches: structural challenges of one title, the pulse-pounding block-matching from another release, engaging interpersonal challenges in another game. Which classification works among existing types? Nowhere, that’s where.

Acknowledgment Issues

Many instances occur outstanding logic titles published annually lacking appropriate categories at major award shows, if they accidentally match for categories like Mobile Game, Virtual reality experiences, or the intensely contested independent game categories.

  • A renowned logic title wasn’t nominated completely in 2014
  • Another creative title received no nominations during that ceremony
  • Popular arranging title received no acknowledgment in 2021
  • Limited numbers of puzzle games managed to sneak into independent or mobile categories

Value of Brain-Teasers

Frequently they represent small games, yet the craft in brain-teasers carries substantial weight. Famous handheld logic titles stand as most engaged experiences globally maintaining this status for over a decade.

The famous puzzle experience challenges well-known building titles for the title of best-selling game of all time; it also contends for top gaming experience. Brain-teasers form essential building blocks for gaming as medium, and engaging with diverse game types.

Recommendation and Reasoning

Brain-teasers wouldn't encounter this problem. It would be easy to populate a field of five interesting, varied, worthy titles each ceremony simply — actually, with challenge, since numerous excellent many worthy titles.

Restating the point, these are games lacking appropriate categories during prominent ceremonies. Logic title developers operate at the challenging frontier of video game design, developing some of essential manifestations of gaming itself. Similar to movie stunt professionals, they deserve recognition. We shouldn't delay decades.

The writer

Dana Flores

A software engineer and tech writer with over 8 years of experience in AI development and digital transformation projects.

Tech Insights Blog

Type to search articles.