[casual_games] surprising stats about casual gaming - casualgames definition

[Juan Gril]

Thanks Ulrich. I'd love to read more about what you wrote.

 

As things progress, I feel that's very likely that the term "casual" will
turn into a genre of video-games. It's a pretty easy to understand term for
the general audience.

 

Something I'm not sure about is if current console games where the level of
involvement could be considered casual are really casual games. And it's
because the learning effort and frustration potential is much higher. Level
design in those console games is still done with the traditional videogame
audience in mind. Case in point: Lumines and Meteos are great puzzle games,
but less accessible for the casual game crowd. Interestingly enough, the
mobile version of Lumines has been tweaked for the casual gamer in mind.
Gameloft (who licensed Lumines from Q) did a great job on it. 

 

If sales of casual games keep increasing though, console puzzle game
developers will probably include a "casual" mode in their games so the
experience is more familiar and less frustrating for casual gamers. And
casual game developers will be invited by the console manufacturers to
develop games for their consoles.

 

Cheers,

 

Juan

  

 

  _____  

From: casual_games-bounces at igda.org [mailto:casual_games-bounces at igda.org]
On Behalf Of Ulrich Tausend
Sent: Saturday, July 29, 2006 10:11 AM
To: casual_games at igda.org
Subject: RE: [casual_games] surprising stats about casual gaming -
casualgames definition

 

Concerning a definition of Casual Games:
The defining feature of a Casual Game is that you can feel casual playing
it.
And that means that the investment that you have to put in to play it, has
to be pretty low. Lower than for core or hardcore games. 

Investment means
- time
- experience
- learning effort
- frustration potential 
- (not money)

That means that a "casual" game on the Nintendo DS or the Playstation 2
would also be a Casual Game. Therefore there are different platforms for
casual games. 
For example: "Try-before-you-buy PC" or "XBox live arcade" or the DS or so.

It is "easy" to play a casual game.


I wrote a text about casual games and gender with couple of pages about a
definition. But it is only in german. But I will translate it in the coming
weeks. 
Ulrich

------------------------------

Message: 2
Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2006 16:30:54 -0700 
From: "Juan Gril" <juangril at jojugames.com>
Subject: RE: [casual_games] surprising stats about casual gaming
To: "'IGDA Casual Games SIG Mailing List'" < casual_games at igda.org>
Message-ID: <000001c6b10b$8adddbf0$6601a8c0 at memex>
Content-Type: text/plain;       charset="iso-8859-1"

We are trying to define the key design elements of a Casual Game (what is a 
Casual Game) in the IGDA Casual Games White Paper:
http://www.igda.org/wiki/index.php/Casual_Games_SIG/Whitepaper/Production_an

d_Design

Comments are welcome.

Thanks,

Juan




-- 
Ulrich Tausend

Neodelight/Neokolor GbR
Berlin - Munich

Phone - Mobile: +49-179-2951979
Phone - Skype In: +1 (347) 223-5845
Fax: +49 (30) 69088434
Skype: uli1000

ut at neodelight.com
www.neodelight.com [games division] 
www.neodelight.com/about/neodelight [corporate] 

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