casual-games posts

Anyone who thinks that casual gaming is a small time business never told publisher Big Fish Games. The Seattle based casual games publisher announced today that it has secured an $83.3 million financing deal. The money came from several venture capital firms.

Big Fish Games plans to use their new found wealth to "to accelerate its global expansion." Founded in 2002, the company works with over 500 developers and consumers download 1 million of their titles per day, according to their press release. The company also has separate web sites in France and Spain.

In an age where PC gaming is shifting away from the hardcore to the casual, PopCap finds itself perched at the peak of a very high mountain. Easily accessible titles such as Bejeweled, Peggle, and Heavy Weapons have made the company synonymous with simplistic-yet-addictive casual experiences -- but why? Why PopCap as opposed to the seemingly infinite number of other casual games developers?

Co-founder John Vechey, CEO David Roberts and PR director Garth Chouteau sit down with Gamasutra to discuss a number of interesting topics, spanning the console downloadable market versus that of the PC, the company's structure, and its thoughts behind its many successful business strategies.

A recent survey conducted by PopCap Games reveals that one in five (20.5 percent) of casual gamers have physical, mental, or developmental disabilities. Of the 13,296 survey participants, 2,728 described their disabilities as mild, moderate, or severe.

One common source of relief among the surveyed: casual video games. The PopCap survey showed that "Compared to the casual gamer population as a whole (which industry estimates peg at 300 million to 400 million players worldwide), those with disabilities play more frequently, for more hours per week, and for longer periods of time per gaming session." Additionally, handicapped gamers place a higher emphasis on their game-playing sessions compared to non-disabled players.

For handicapped gamers, the benefits of casual games encompass more than simple entertainment. According to the survey, additional benefits were "numerous and varied, often citing deeper sensations of achievement and "belonging," or distraction from loneliness and/or chronic pain."

Dr. Carl Arinoldo, a New York-based psychologist with over 25 years of experience treating patients suffering from various physical and mental handicaps, is not surprised by those results. "With some forms of depression, a person may be very focused on something that clearly amounts to a misperception of reality. So the chance to distance themselves from the perceived negative situation and relax may allow them to think more clearly and consider the situation later in a more realistic manner."

For 58-year-old Gary Robinson, a North Carolina resident who suffers from "severe physical disabilities," cites games like Peggle and Bejeweled as "idea" due to their simplistic controls and mental engagement. "In some ways," Robinson said, "games like these are the greatest thing that's appeared on the computer scene for people like me."

The term "casual" has been coined to define a genre of game that so-called "non-gamers" can play. These games typically have a number of elements in common:

1. Simple rules -- the object of the game should be clear, with an easily-understood control scheme
2. Minimal time investment -- levels should be short enough to be completed in one sitting, say, between 3 - 5 minutes
3. Minimal system requirements -- the game shouldn't require the latest video card or esoteric browser plug-ins

If we examine one of the reigning kings of the casual game genre, PopCap Games' Bejeweled, we find all three of these elements. It's easy to understand, progress can be made quickly (even though there is no goal other than the accrual of points), and it's Flash-based, which most web browsers already support out of the gate. So on the surface, it's fairly easy to determine, at a glance, if a game fits within the casual template. However, while games like Bejeweled still abound, the genre as a whole has begun to mutate, requiring a redefinition of the label. We'll explore how and why after the jump.

Want an excellent way to get your girlfriend involved in gaming? Get her hooked on clicky web-based games like PopCap's insanely successful casual title, Bejeweled. Want to make sure that not only will she continue to love gaming, but stick around and geek out with you for years to come? 'Hack' her favorite game and use it to propose to her!

Sound far-fetched? We thought so too, until we heard the story of Bernie Peng, who got creative when it came to popping the question to his other half, Tammy Li. After working for a month or so on a homebrew Nintendo DS port of Li's favorite PC game, he passed it along to her claiming he 'found' it. After she hit the required score, a ring dropped down on-screen -- something totally different from her usual gaming! That's when Peng asked her to marry him, she said yes, and the rest became gaming geek history.

In an interesting aside to this story, PopCap Games, makers of Bejeweled and many other highly addictive time-sucking clicky games, have decided to fly the happy couple to Seattle for a visit to their offices as part of their Honeymoon. (Getting angry about a cool port would be a bad call, after all.) They are also giving the happy couple lots of free copies of Bejeweled to give away as wedding favors. We sense many more clicky-game addicts will be in the making as the happy couple kick off their new life together.