Filed under: Uncategorized, Game Design / Production, Casual Games
-noun. KAHZ-oo-uhl Geym
Once upon a time orange was the new pink, and then “casual games” was the new orange, and then casual MMOs were the new black, but that is all sooooo 2005!
The term “casual game” is a games industry term-of-art that is tossed around a lot, especially in business plans, corporate reports, press releases and on company About pages. But what does it mean? All words have meaning, right?. Odds are, if you really know what “casual games” are, then you do not spend much time arguing the meaning of the term (kinda like the off-side rule in soccer).
At trade shows and in articles, we hear about developers, portals, and publishers explaining their casual game plans. It seems that many definitions of “casual games” are a bit like the blind men describing the elephant.
For your edification, here are everyone else’s Daffynitions for “casual games”!
CONSOLE DEVELOPERS
Casual Game = The thing they are working on while they wait for Sony to call with the next-gen dev kit. Having grown addicted to multi-million dollar budgets and 3 year dev cycles, many hardcore developers try their hand at “casual” games between projects. The results are either overly complex “casual” games, or watered down hardcore ones.MARKETERS
Casual Game = whatever their latest project is. Marketers love neologisms like Halitosis, Lemon-rific, and Man-tastic; made-up marketing words that mean nothing, or anything. Ask a marketing manager what “casual” means, and they will describe what they are currently selling. PMs even put a “casual” mode in Stranglehold!NINTENDO
Casual Game = does not really matter, as long as it gets people to buy out our hardware!DISTRIBUTORS
Casual Game = Any game that is sold via the “Try before you buy model”, aka glorified shareware.PORTALS
Casual Game = Any game that converts sufficiently well to let web surfers believe they can find good games on the site, but sufficiently poorly so that it doesn’t affect advertising CPM.“CASUAL” PUBLISHERS
Casual Game = game which appeal to our existing audience. By this logic, as the current casual publishing leaders get better at identifying their audience, they will make better games for them. As they circle the bowl, they will eventually end up with one customer playing the Platonic Ideal of a casual game. Ironically, to them, casual is the new niche.“TRADITIONAL” PUBLISHERS
Casual Game = Every game in their catalog without a gun, tank, football or sword. Many console/pc publishers, especially Europeans and others late to the casual party, have kludged their entire E and T rated catalog into a new “casual” division. Picture Lara Croft wielding a spatula and wearing a muumuu.ELECTRONIC ARTS
Casual Game = An affordable channel to experiment with themes and gameplay, to invent new mechanics, invest in additional opportunities for a breakout hit, and to reach out to the wider mass-market. Hmm, perhaps the oldest and most successful “casual” publisher is on to something.
The goal of this article was not to define “casual games” for you; we’ll leave that to the “experts”. In general, it is wise to avoid the use of the term and stick with words like fun, approachable, and mass-market to describe your projects. Don’t set out to make “casual games”, instead strive to make fun, profitable games that delight and entertain a wide audience.