Is "casual" a genre now?

[Infinite Element]

Is it? Most casual games are either breakout, match 3, or zuma style games (don't know how to classify that one). Do we classify that as a genre in itself now? Or maybe a subgenre in other genres (e.g. Casual Action games)?

-Inf.

[jcottier]

Not at all. Do you consider Hardcore to be a genre? No, so why would you consider casual to be one?

JC

[Infinite Element]

True, but it seems that more and more people are starting to refer to casual games as such.

[Applewood]

I don't really consider breakout to be casual tbh. If it has proper level progression with new stuff coming on, it passes the test for me.

I even object to the term casual tbh. It seems most people think their games are casual now, like most people seem to think they're indies.

You're struggling for a definition because it's been so badly overused it's forgotten than the word "casual" *is* a definition in it's own right.

From dictionary.com

2. without definite or serious intention; careless or offhand; passing: a casual remark.

[Infinite Element]

Ah, alright. Just trying to clear up confusion caused by others.

[WaveRider]

When I'm asked what I do I have been known to reply "I'm a Casual Game Developer".
This almost always leads to the question "So what's your REAL job then?", at which point I have to explain that "Casual" refers to the GAME rather than the Developer.

I have recently gone back to calling them Puzzle Games.

[Nikos Beck]

I like "Puzzle" because it implies that the goal is to solve something. I'd have to say that "Match-Three" is a genre because the goal is to rearrange items into groups rather than solving the entire board into a "solved" state.

It's like using "Arcade" as a genre... games that were played in arcades despite them being dramatically different. Pac-Man, Arkanoid, Centipede are all "arcade" games but different from eachother. Luxor and Bejeweled are both "casual" games because they're played at home in one's spare time.

[Spore Man]

It's a market segment.
And like all market segments, there can and is overlap between segments.

[spellcaster]

Well, you say it's a casual breakout/poker/whatever game.
Ut's like "it's a red sports car."

You can have casual shooters, casual adventures, rpgs you name it. It just specifies the target audience.

Casual is the audience, puzzle would be the mechanic and fantasy would be the genre - or ouzzle would be the genre and fantasy the flavor, depending on how you prefer to define genre.

Anyway, it's just another way to categorize a game.

[ZeHa]

In German, you mostly speak of "Spiele für Zwischendurch", which basically means, "games for now and then" or "games for having a little break". So that's really not defining a "genre", it's more a way of making a difference between a huge epic thing and a small cute "time-killer" ;)

Maybe a good example would be a thick comic book with one long story and a book of comic strips with three panels. The first one draws you in completely, but the second one can also be read while waiting for the bus. But the setting doesn't matter, it can be fantasy, super-hero-stuff, Charlie Brown like, or whatever, and also the drawing style can be everything from stick figures to high quality art or even photography.

And one important thing: The three-panel-book can also be read for hours, and so can casual games be played. In fact, a good comic book or a good casual game does exactly that: it seems like it's a short thing that only takes a few minutes, but you keep hearing yourself saying: "just one more..." ;)