[casual_games] RE: Casual_Games Digest, Vol 17, Issue 5

[Jamie Carlson]

At 02:15 PM 10/13/2006, you wrote:
>Meanwhile, I can't help lamenting what seems to be a shared ambition 
>of many developers to morph our sideshow into the mainstream 
>video/computer game biz.  I'm hoping casual games remain forever 
>casual -- for the player and also the developer.  Be careful what 
>you wish for:  if casual games turn into multi-million-$ projects in 
>amazing 3D, mainstream developers & publishers will become very 
>heavy-duty competition, I believe.


Hi Hal,

Well, I don't think that's a concern, since usually the larger 
developers are just that... larger.

By being larger it entails that they most likely have significantly 
higher overhead costs and have more "mouths to feed" depending on the 
size of their teams... a casual game typically takes 6 months for a 
2-3 person team (programmer, artist, producer_designer) to complete, 
so a larger developer would have to have multiple projects cooking to 
sustain their team for any period of time. Given the sheer number of 
products available in this space, I don't see a larger developer who 
churns out 10+ games a year making money with that approach... that's 
just my opinion though.

More importantly I don't think the "mainstream developers" are 
capable of "morphing the sideshow" because the publishers/portal 
still have a great deal of influence in this equations (i.e. Brian 
Robbin's PPT from a few months ago). The return on investment is very 
hit or miss in this space and so if you're a small and agile 
developer you can sustain that (especially if you keep costs down and 
leverage your time/efforts on multiple projects - some 
contract/fee-based work, perhaps)...

But the larger the developer gets, the more critical it is for the 
project(s) to be profitable for them.... and the only to keep them 
profitable is to keep the costs down (i.e. multi-million, amazing 3D 
projects are certainly not that).

- Jamie

P.S. We're not a big developer. I just love this product space and 
love the simplicity/elegance of the play mechanics... In essence, I 
want to be excited about my work, again (and I hope that smaller, 
focused game designs will help me get excited).  ;-)

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   Jamie Carlson (Sonalysts Inc.)
   Producer / Designer
   http://www.sonalystscombatsims.com
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