2. Casual Games Summit GDC - San Francisco March 23 & 24th 2009

3. Welcome!
Dave Rohrl
Kenny Shea Dinkin
Steve Meretzky

4. The Usual Fine Print Everyone have a handout?
Turn off cell phones, etc.
No molesting of speakers
Reception 6pm – 8pm
Fill out feedback forms
“same faces”

5. This Year’s Theme

6. This Year’s Theme
Red Ocean: a saturated market space with many competitors and low profit margins
Blue Ocean: a market you create by changing the rules, where you make the competition irrelevant

7. Blue Ocean Examples Cirque de Soleil Southwest Airlines
Casella Wines (Yellowtail)
Curves

8. Blue Ocean Examples A new genre (e.g. Mystery Case Files)
A new economic model
(e.g. Kartrider)
A new demographic
(e.g. Brain Age)
A new user interface
(e.g. Wii Sports)

9. Summit Structure Today Morning: Intro After Lunch: art & business of
casual games in a red ocean
Tomorrow
All Day: art & business of
casual games in a blue ocean

10. What is a Casual Game? Not a hard-core game.
“A game intended for players for whom gaming isn’t a central part of their lives.”

11. Characteristics Easy to get started Reveal complexity gradually
Not punitive or frustrating
Non-violent themes
Short play sessions
Free or relatively inexpensive

13. Dawn of Time to 1970

14. Dawn of Time to 1970
Conventional Wisdom:
“Games are for Everyone!”

15. 1970 to 1990

16. 1970 to 1990 Conventional Wisdom:
“The bigger, longer, harder, more complex the game, the better.”

17. 1990 to 2000

18. 1990 to 2000 Conventional Wisdom:
“Sure, lots of people play casual games. But no one will pay for them…”

19. 2000 to 2005

20. 2000 to 2005 Conventional Wisdom:
“We know how to monetize soccer moms with $20 downloadables.”

21. 2005 to Today

22. 2005 to Today
Conventional Wisdom:
“Games are for Everyone!”

23. Design Principles

24. “Classic” Design Principles
Lowest possible barriers to entry
Rules: quickly learnable
- or -
Rules: already familiar
UI: simple and intuitive
Quick-starting

25. “Classic” Design Principles
Assume zero knowledge base

26. “Classic” Design Principles
Assume zero tolerance for frustation
Teach through rewards, not punishment

27. “Classic” Design Principles
Permit (but don’t require) short play sessions

28. “Classic” Design Principles
Fit those short play sessions into a larger context

30. “Classic” Design Principles
Reveal depth in slow, easy stages

31. “Classic” Design Principles

32. “Classic” Design Principles
Match your look and theme to your demographic

33. “Classic” Design Principles

34. “Classic” Design Principles

35. “Classic” Design Principles
Match your look and theme to your demographic…
…but don’t condescend.

36. “Classic” Design Principles

37. “Classic” Design Principles

38. “New” Design Principles
Consider your audience, genre, platform, and economic model
Choose/modify the design principles to meet the needs of each game.

39. “New” Design Principles

40. “New” Design Principles

41. Design Principles Good casual game design = good game design
If it ain’t fun, the rest don’t matter.