Casual Games: What’s Their Status?

Article by Tristan Andrews

Casual games are simple but fun games that don't involve using up huge amounts of your time or a commitment to complex worlds and the like. Normally they are played on a PC and are browser-based games, but there are a growing number of console casual games. They are a contrast to the games called hardcore and the hardcore gamers that are willing to spend large slots of time playing a game and to learning complex skills in order to play.

The main features of a causal game are simplicity: short games; don't have to save the game, 2D, and abstraction of graphics. Around two million people play casual games each month. Normally they are free online games or have a download option for free and rely on advertising to make money. Casual online games depend on Flash or Shockwave.

Solitaire by Microsoft was the first casual that had success. It was free and was included in Microsoft Windows; next they introduced Minesweeper, Freecell, and Spider Solitaire. Nineteen ninety-six saw casual games hit the online market. The sites that began online casual games were UpRoar and Gamesville with games like cards, trivia, and puzzles. Since the technology didn't allow for saving a game or other involved features designers concentrated on making casual games. Bejeweled was one of the first flash casual games online. Casual games forged new ground again when big color displays took over cell phones, since they weren't capable of offering complex games.

Many casual games take on the traditional games like chess, pinball, poker, and checkers etcetera. It must be concluded from the inclusion of chess in online casual games that complex verses simple games in this case refers to technology and games that require saving and character involvement and the like because complex moves and strategies are inherent in chess.

In 2008 casual games reached a popularity that carries weight in the 'gaming' industry and according to 'The State of the Casual Games Industry 2008' by Mathew Kumer, in discussions of the industry of games they can't be brushed aside anymore. They have become part of the competitive arena in the games industry.

In other words, the so-called simple games have gained some financial clout. Casual games made over two million bucks last year for the games industry. This section of the games industry has a growth rate of 20% each year.

What may be a surprise is that games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero go under the casual games label. Casual game players like games that have a little more substance when they have time at home to play; that fact has boosted the popularity of time-management, fashion/food click-management, simulation, hidden object, and adventure games.

The trick to designing a good casual game for online, console or download is to have a game that is fun without the sounds and other flash or java features. The additional features just make it better. This is the opinion of Iris Williams who does programming at GameHouse ('Casual Games make Serious Profits,' BBC).

Casual games don't take as much money to develop and many more can be crated by a company in a year than if they were producing hardcore gaming projects. The simple concept in many ways has dominated the world for centuries, for instance, the invention of the wheel, a simple idea that has changed the world over and over again for hundreds of years.

About the Author

Tristan Andrews is a freelance author who writes articles about Dog Games and Cat Games.

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