[casual_games] Aztec

[Jónas B. Antonsson]

I agree with Daniel James.
 
At this stage there is no way of telling what works and what doesn't when it comes to Casual Games. Trends do not necessarily tell the whole story because, when push comes to shove, we also have to look at things like marketing, target audience, etc. And since the Casual Games Industry is so young these things aren't mature enough to reveal any hard facts. The marketing aspect of Casual Games is just beginning to take shape and facts about target audience for popular casual games, that are available today, are relatively new. "Facts" that apply to conventional games cannot be transferred onto Casual Games without sufficient research.  
 
The fact that a big part of Casual Game Players, today, are women should not be a limitation to game design, development or production - it should represent a major opportunity. Games that appeal to other segments and groups will pop up as the Casual Games market grows and those games might employ different dynamics, paradigms, designs and structures than the Casual Games that are most popular today. I truly believe that we'll see new genres introduced through Casual Games in the near future. In fact, I'm personally betting on it ;-)
 
Anyway - In line with this rant I want to quote marketing guru Seth Godin (http://sethgodin.typepad.com/). "It's all about the story". Don't create something "Aztec looking" just because it seems to sell - create it because you've got a great story that demands that the game should be "Aztec looking". And don't avoid "cute looking" just because there seems to be a trend against it if you've got a story that demands something cute. Don't sell out on your "story".
 
Regards,
Jónas Antonsson
CEO, Gogogic
jonas at gogogic.com
www.gogogic.com
www.jonasantonsson.com <http://www.jonasantonsson.com>  
 
________________________________

From: casual_games-bounces at igda.org on behalf of Daniel James
Sent: fim. 27.4.2006 18:32
To: IGDA Casual Games SIG Mailing List
Subject: RE: [casual_games] Aztec


On Thu, 27 Apr 2006, Juan Gril wrote:

> 'Casual Games players get put off by "cute" characters or visual
> elements that make the sensation of watching a Saturday morning
> cartoon.'

Neopets looks a lot like a Saturday morning cartoon to me (well, it's
cuter and arguably slightly less polished), and is unquestionably one of
the better examples of a casual game website. Indeed, as a site that's
grown organically to ~20M uniques, I'd say it's a much better example
than any of the offerings of most major portals that are fed by fairly
consistent traffic pipes unrelated to the quality of their offerings.

Likewise most of the Korean 'casual' games are super-cute, even though
they appeal to very wide demographics. Of course cultural tastes vary,
but...

That is to say, I agree that we're way too early in the game to know
what works for casual games as a whole. Statements can be made about
what works for a $20 downloadable game distributed via the major US/EU
portals, but given ~2% (purchasers) of ~30% (downloads compared to play
online) for hit game monetization rates, I don't think that that tells
us all that much about what the other 99% of the (US/EU) audience might
be willing to spend money on...

Another way of putting this is to say that it's a bad idea for the
casual games 'industry' to categorise themselves as 'downloadlable games
for the older, majority female demographic that predominantly buys
downloadable games via the major portals'. If we do that then some of us
will have to find another industry categorisation for that other 99%,
along with associated additional conferences and so forth. Save us!

- Daniel
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