Portals: More chance of success with core/casual niche?

[Lord007]

I hope this is posted under the correct forum.

What is the general consensus in regards to more "core" oriented casual games? I mean the type of game more complex then the casual games, but not a full-on core specific game. You know, that quiet midpoint on the spectrum. What do you call that market segment?

When thinking of a portal that caters specifically to these types of games only GarageGames comes to mind. Am I correct in that assumption of GG? There has to be more though, but either way it seems to be that it's almost a sort of niche market where there's not a ton of "big players" competing with each other. Also, what are some of the more well known games that have been successful with this target audience?

The reason why I ask is because I am trying to start my own portal (www.FunWarp.com - Nothing there yet) and so far it's looking like competing specifically in the casual games space is quite a challenge. Perhaps I am going about this the wrong way, but I was under the impression that I could acquire a large amount of games from an aggregator (Boonty, Oberon, TryMedia) which would give me the content needed then pretty much focus on website design and of course marketing.

Would focusing on the middle divide of core/casual seem like a more business-sound plan (more chance of success)? I have been researching everything casual so I pretty much ignored anything else.

Thank you for your time,
Andy Dick

[Phil Steinmeyer]

I think at the moment a new portal run by a small individual (i.e. no big bucks or big backing for launch) would stand a better chance of success by differentiation from all the established portals. Yes - you could focus on games that are more 'indie' than 'casual'. You could also subdivide the casual space and focus on 'Action Casual', 'Word Games', 'Card/Solitaire Games', etc.

When you've already got ~6 well established generalists, your best bet is to be a specialist.

[Sharpfish]

Well speaking for myself as a developer, and also looking at some recent threads, I think it is apparent that pure casual games development will be changing over the next couple of years as licences come in with advertising budgets (bewitched for example) and basically kill of what fruits were there for the true indie. MY current project aims at the unsure/risky area you talk of - the not hardcore (by any means) but certainly more complicated / involved (from a technical standpoint) than the usual 2D Match3 Game. This market is unsure for many of us as not many have bothered to do it. Developers have either gone with their desire and created shoot em ups, strategy games, crazy platform games etc or they have gone completely casual with things like zuma and bejwelled clones.

One game I can think of that hints at semi-casual (or semi-harcore) would be Outpost Kaloki. Which I think is a great little game. However I can see that it is too "in depth" even with its simple strategy to be classed as casual, but not hardcore enough to perhaps be taken seriously by the real core players.

Therefore ANY portal or even website that can concentrate on that area would be welcome to developers of games like that (and developers like me) so that the market became more aware of these slightly more advanced "casual games". There is a LOT in casual gaming to learn from - Controls, Save games (profiles), file sizes, tutorials, rewards - combine these with a game that appears to give more value, or has seemingly more personality put into (such as hardcore games normally do) and you should in theory have a decent product on your hands...

... but very few places to promote it if the usual portals refuse to give it a try. Direct sales may be affected because it is not "niche" enough and it could end up in limbo.

So good luck with it. It will be tough but everything is worth a shot.