[casual_games] The Making of Casual Games

[Thomas Heinen]

Hi

 > Unlike in a "hardcore" (for lack of a better word!) game like CS or 
Halo, where the target audience is well defined, for a casual game, the 
design has to have broad-based appeal because the audience profile is 
nebulous. I feel that this makes designing casual games a much more 
complex task.
It's probably worth a mention that many casual game developers look into 
some demographic data to adjust the game mechanics.There's an especially 
interesting read in the IGDA quartery publication which cites a bunch of 
representatives of casual gaming sites. Thus the point about a fuzzy 
audience may not be a so hard one. Eg you can safely assume that some 
puzzle game will have a bigger female audience and some hack'n'slash 
game be more male-biased.

Another point at casual games is that the time needed for adjusting 
target audience-preferenced stuff (like a second sound set demanded by 
women) tends to be much smaller than to bigger ones.

Cu

Thomas Heinen
Wootanga Ltd