Week 1 Intro

What's a Casual Game?

A casual game is a video game targeted at or used by a mass audience of casual gamers.

+ Casual games can have any type of gameplay, and fit in any genre.

+ They are typically distinguished by their simple rules and lack of commitment required in contrast to more complex hardcore games.

+ They require no long-term time commitment or special skills to play, and there are comparatively low production and distribution costs for the producer.

• Extremely simple gameplay, like a puzzle game that can be played entirely using a one-button mouse or cellphone keypad.
• Allowing gameplay in short bursts, during work breaks or, in the case of portable and cell phone games, on public transportation.
• The ability to quickly reach a final stage, or continuous play with no need to save the game.
• Some variant on a "try before you buy" business model or an advertising-based model.

We'll look at good examples and best practices of casual games throughput the course. In a week or so you'll have an assignment where you spotlight a casual game and detail its genre and other descriptors, controls, gameplay features (esp. addictive ones), how the player learns the game, and business model.

Start thinking of a game you'd like to review (and play it!).

http://jayisgames.com is a great place to discover new casual games.

Pre-requisites

Although casual games can be built for any hardware (PC, gaming console, mobile phone, handheld), and using any language (C++, Java, C#, AS3, Objective-C, JavaScript, ...), we'll be using primarily JavaScript & Canvas, with some help from HTML/CSS.

The official pre-req for this course is Rich Media Web App Dev. I (IGME-330). This course covers OOP JavaScript programming, the Canvas drawing API, loading data/web services, and an introduction to server-side programming/web databases.

However, we had 2 sections of Casual Game Development open for the spring, and a strong need for advanced electives, so something had to be done about the pre-req. For this semester only, the pre-req was lowered to Web Site Design and Implementation (4080-309/IGME-230)

What was covered in Web Site Design and Implementation?

Students that took IGME-230 Fall semester did get an introduction to JavaScript, DOM (Document Object Model) methods, and web services. Students who took 4080-309 under quarters generally got very little programming.

What does this mean?

This means that we have to start more or less at the beginning and cover basic JS and canvas concepts for the benefit of the majority of the class who have not had exposure to these topics as of yet. What this means:

• If you took IGME-330 (or 4080-432 New Media Web Tech II) you will see much of the material again. There is however, quite a bit of new material, as we will be building more elaborate games with JS/Canvas, a mobile game, and building a 3D game with Three.js
• If you took IGME-230 the first 2 weeks will include some review, but we are getting to canvas pretty quickly.
• If you took an HTML5 seminar or a Data Viz. seminar, you will have seen some of the canvas material before.
• We have a lot to cover! We're going to move pretty quickly though the basics of HTML/CSS and JavaScript/Canvas, so you need to be very comfortable with programming. If you are not, you should think about taking a different course.