The lead developers for those three games were Darren Walker, Lead Programmer of Mumbo Jumbo (Luxor), Jim Stern, VP of Production at iWin (Mah Jong Quest), and Carla Humphrey, Executive Producer at Last Day of Work (Fish Tycoon). They talked about their games during a panel discussion at the recent Casuality game developer’s conference in Seattle, sharing details about their development processes, as well as insights into the lessons learned from the projects.

It’s an interesting read, both for developers and for fans of those games.

Third party publishers, led by EA and Activision, have signaled their intention to charge $10 more for next-generation software, believing that many gamers are not price sensitive. However, there is also a fear that this new price point will cause many less-hardcore gamers to simply keep their old consoles and not upgrade to the new boxes.

The rise of the video game industry has lead to frequent comparisions to the movie industry, and the rising production costs will only accellerate this trend. The article predicts that larger game budgets will lead publishers to play it safe by not risking their development time and money on new gaming concepts, causing the video game industry to become even more like the movie industry, where sequels, and high-concept, generic star vehicles featuring famous names are the rule.

The advent of clones is hardly news in the casual game market, of course, but the cause may be different. In films and video games, high production costs yield copycats. In casual games, copycats exist for just the opposite reason – development costs are so low, and clone games can be produced so quickly. It’s not about risk mitigation so much as about cashing in on a popular idea.

Of course, as production values rise, budgets for casual games will likely rise as well, and eventually these costs may be passed along to consumers. There has been some discussion of changing the common $19.95 price point for casual games (Casual Game Price Elasticity, Casual Game Price Points and Conversion), but this does not appear likely to change in the near future.

One item I found interesting: “Use the right mouse button. No-one playing casual games will ever use the right mouse-button.” I suspect that this holds true for the majority of casual arcade games, but it is certainly not the case for games such as Pretty Good Solitaire and Solitaire Plus!, which make extensive use of the right mouse button, and in some ways are the very epitome of a casual game.

Another item I’d take issue with is “Price it weirdly. Self-distribute. Sign any deal you can.“, specifically the “self-distribute” part. The way a game is distributed may have something to do with the financial success of a game, but it has absolutely nothing to do with whether it is a good or bad game. Pretty Good Solitaire is a perfect example of that – it’s always been self-distributed, but is widely acknowledged to be the best and most popular game of its kind.

Still, the list should be required reading for any new developer. While all of its points don’t apply to all casual games, the majority of them are valid for most games.

The American casual game market was estimated to be worth $600 million in 2004, with a $2 billion projection by 2008. This is only a small fraction of the American video game market size, expected to grow from $8.2 billion in 2004 to $15.1 billion in 2009, but the size of the market is not really the point. The point is that game designers, by working on titles that can be completed quicker, and require smaller development teams than console video games, and by controlling their own marketing, can actual earn more for their efforts.

The article mentions a few noteworthy games, game designers, casual game companies, and blogs, including Popcap Games, Dexterity, Pretty Good Solitaire, and A Shareware Life, among others.

This article is a good introduction to the casual arcade game industry, and helps to shatter the perception that all gamers are teenage boys playing Halo and Grand Theft Auto in their bedrooms. Indeed, everyone is becoming a gamer – mom and dad, kid sisters, even grandma and grandpa have joined the stereotypical teenage boy as game consumers – and they are just the market that casual games try to serve.