2008‐2009 Casual Games White Paper A Project of the Casual Games SIG of the IGDA Find out more at www.igda.org/casual Contents Contents .......................................................................................................................................... 2 Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 6 Understanding Casual Games ......................................................................................................... 8 The Market for Casual Games ..................................................................................................... 8 Overview of Casual Game Business Models .............................................................................. 10 The Casual Game Audience ....................................................................................................... 14 Global Design Principles ............................................................................................................ 16 Art Style ..................................................................................................................................... 26 Audio in Casual Games .............................................................................................................. 32 Are Writers Needed For Casual Games? ................................................................................... 39 Characters and Narrative .......................................................................................................... 42 QA & Beta Testing ..................................................................................................................... 49 Life Cycle of a Casual Game ....................................................................................................... 56 Localization ................................................................................................................................ 60 Intellectual Property .................................................................................................................. 62 Technology Issues ...................................................................................................................... 73 Try and Buy Downloadable Games ............................................................................................... 77 What Is a Try and Buy Downloadable Game? ........................................................................... 77 Art History of Downloadable Games ......................................................................................... 79 The Audience and Market for Downloadable Games ............................................................... 83 Business Models ........................................................................................................................ 84 Design Principles ........................................................................................................................ 87 Production ................................................................................................................................. 89 2 Key Players ................................................................................................................................. 92 Advergames ................................................................................................................................... 96 Overview .................................................................................................................................... 96 Art History ................................................................................................................................. 96 The Market and Audience ....................................................................................................... 100 Business Models ...................................................................................................................... 100 Advergame Specific Design Principles ..................................................................................... 104 Production & Development Issues .......................................................................................... 105 Funding Models ....................................................................................................................... 110 Key Players ............................................................................................................................... 110 Ad Supported Web Games .......................................................................................................... 112 Advertisting and Games .......................................................................................................... 112 Overview of Ad Supported Web Games .................................................................................. 113 Market and Audience for Ad‐Supported Web Games ............................................................ 116 Business Models for Ad‐Supported Web Games .................................................................... 117 Art History ............................................................................................................................... 122 Design Principles for Ad‐Supported Web Games .................................................................... 125 Production Issues .................................................................................................................... 127 Major Companies Involved with Advertising and Games ....................................................... 128 Console Downloads ..................................................................................................................... 130 Art History of Console Downloads .......................................................................................... 130 A List of the Players in the Console Download Space ............................................................. 134 The Market and Audience for Console Downloads ................................................................. 137 Business Models for Console Downloads ................................................................................ 140 3 Specific Design Principles for Console Downloads .................................................................. 141 Production Issues .................................................................................................................... 144 References: .............................................................................................................................. 146 Skill games ................................................................................................................................... 148 Overview .................................................................................................................................. 148 History ..................................................................................................................................... 149 Audience .................................................................................................................................. 149 Business overview ................................................................................................................... 150 Design principles of successful skill games .............................................................................. 155 Case study: WorldWinner’s Family Feud ................................................................................. 159 Microtransaction Supported Games ........................................................................................... 166 What is MTX? .......................................................................................................................... 166 Origins of the business model in games .................................................................................. 166 Asian Experiences .................................................................................................................... 167 Western experiences ............................................................................................................... 168 MTX Market Overview............................................................................................................. 168 Microtransaction Audience ..................................................................................................... 173 Game Production and Development ....................................................................................... 173 List of key players .................................................................................................................... 177 Derivative Products ..................................................................................................................... 179 Casual Games on Mobile Phones ............................................................................................ 179 Casual Games at Retail ............................................................................................................ 183 Casual Games on the Macintosh ............................................................................................. 188 Appendix A – Casual Games Meet Serious Games 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