[casual_games] Games for Gamers Forum

[Juan Gril]

Hey everyone. I wanted to let everyone know about an event the Casual Games
Association is planning during Casual Connect in Seattle.

As you all probably know, the success of the Xbox Live Arcade, Steam and the
Web Game Portals are opening new possibilities and new audiences for Casual
Game Developers.  If you have been following us for a while, you know that
we have been banging the drum that Casual Games shouldn't be just for 35+
females. And finally, and thanks to emerging platforms, we are starting to
see a potential audience which can support our development investments. XBLA
hits are selling above half a million copies. There are 1.8 million
concurrent users connected to Steam in peak hours. These are platforms which
justify our attention.

As an industry, we are starting to use terms to describe these games: some
of them are called Indie Games, or Core-Casual, or Hard-Casual. They tend to
describe types of games targeted towards ex-core gamers (people with little
time in life to play MGS4 but would love to have a lightweight shooter),
current gamers taking a break from AAA games sessions, connected Gen Y
gamers, or in some cases people who are looking for new experiences in
gaming.

This spring, you will see an announcement for a "Games for Gamers Forum" as
part of Casual Connect Seattle. It will be a 2 day event, occupying the
lecture hall in The Triple Door (those in attendance last year will remember
that it is across the Street from Benaroya Hall). The sessions we are
planning to have are of the following types:

    * *The audience:* who are they and what genres of games are popular
among them.
    * *Postmortems:* game developers talking about their games.
    * *Business Cases:* examples of financially successful games.
    * *Platform holders:* platform holders give their latest info.

Why should you attend?

If you are a developer interested in these games, we hope to provide you
with as much information as possible about the current environment for Games
for Gamers, and also allow you to network with peers who have the same
interests.

If you are Casual Game Publisher: did you realize that very little of the
revenue generated by these games is flowing through your company? You are
missing a huge part of the audience out there. We hope to provide you with
enough business cases and facilitate the networking among game developers
who can develop high-quality Games for Gamers for you.

What's next?

We are in the planning stages of the program, but we need your feedback! If
you are interested, either as a participant or as an attendant, please let
us know your thoughts. And we hope to see you at Casual Connect Seattle in
July.


Cheers,

Juan Gril
Program Advisor - Casual Games Association

Jessica Tams
Managing Director - Casual Games Association
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