Pre-Production Game Creation – A Casual Games case study

In this document I'll be discussing various ideas I have for casual games. I'll also be researching platforms, languages and competing games. I aim to show how and why my game ideas will work.

Throughout the document I will link to prototypes and demo videos of my three game ideas, as well as pooling together most of the exercises I've done in tutorial sessions.

About Casual Games:

I think of casual games as anything that you don't have to invest huge amounts of time into, which are accessible and often portable. Many deep casual games exist, but you should be able to start off running without having to read a manual or learn controls. Many are addictive by design. The ubiquitous nature of the web means anything online can be considered mobile now, especially as netbooks and powerful handsets such as the iphone become common. Experimental, communal games could also be consudered casual despite being outside the normal definition.

Recently Sony's PSN, MS's Live Arcade and the entire Wii platform have accentuated the demand for simpler pick up and play games. The iPhone now has thousands of games despite only being open to developers for a few months.

"The market for online casual games, from Tetris (estimated 60 million sold in lifetime) on cell phones to Bejeweled (350 million downloaded and sold on mobile phones) on computers, hit about $2.25 billion worldwide last year, according to Jessica Tams, head of the Casual Games Association. She says she no longer gets those funny looks when she talks about her group. Before, people would ask skeptical questions. Can you make any money with those? Are those real games?" Dean Takahashi of Venturebeat quoting Jessica Tams of CGA.

Casual games aren't a new thing, they've been around since the beginning of gaming - many  retro arcade staples (breakout, space invaders etc.) would be considered "casual" now, despite being the mainstream of their time. Casual games are here to stay!