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[baconman]

Been on a casual-gaming kick this past couple months, since life got a bit hairy on me. I've had little time to play stuff, and when I do, I need cooled down instead of pumped up. So, I ended up playing a LOT of Bejeweled Blitz/3. And a bit of Subway Surfers. Also, I picked up Card City Nights, and I recall a good discussion about Puzzle and Dragons, and Pac-Man Monsters.

I mean, down to the core, these are very casual affairs, and not the terrible addiction-spawning stuff like FarmVille or Candy Crush Saga that we like to get irritated at. So, might as well spark the discussion:

What are some casual games you enjoy, and what makes them GOOD games?

[Cranktrain]

I haven't played too many casual games, the big two I enjoyed thoroughly and through to completion were Peggle and Plants vs Zombies. Popcap really nailed those two, insane amounts of polish.

A game I'd argue as being close-to-if-not-actually-casual is Blizzard's Hearthstone. I know, it's a Blizzard game, it's a competitive CCG, it's set in the Warcraft world, it's got

, but... it's so accessible. It might be a card game, but it's so easy to get going, and there aren't many rules, and you can drop in for a ten minute game whenever. I only started playing it a bit last week, and I'm enjoying it.

[s0]

kairosoft games (particularly dungeon village), tap titans, dungelot, slayin and puzzle & dragons are my faves

[Türbo Bröther]

OutRun 2006: Coast 2 Coast is, like, the best casual game ever. It looks like a dream and it'll take you less than five minutes to get to one of the end points on the course so it's already attractive to people who take things at face value as well as the coffee break crowd. It's got content galore: two completely different fifteen stage courses, a mission mode where you can earn points to unlock things like more cars and music and tracks so that's the obsessive collectors on board. You even earn points if you lose which is great encouragement to those people who are slower to get good at games than others are. Plus it's immediately satisfying the first time you go sideways around that first corner in your shiny fast car with an infectious music track playing and it continues to be satisfying because there's a hell of a lot more corners to go sideways around and rival cars to pass and laugh at so people who crave instant satisfaction are probably dropping their credit cards on the floor in their rush to be a part of the fun.

And for the hardcore gaming crowd it's a game that's a joy to get good at because it's a SEGA arcade game and that's an area where it's very rare for them to screw up in. Just about the only people who're left out are the whales but they're too busy finger banging buttons to buy more microtransactions in Jagoff Hamsters or whatever the current shit is. Have fun tracking it down though it's not like it's readily available anymore but the catch is really better than the chase.

[bdsowers]

I dig into Jetpack Joyride, Nimble Quest, and Tiny Wings here and there.

I don't know if I can put up a strong case for any of them being 'good' games, but they're entertaining. Polished, responsive, challenging. They give me a bit of room for growth and creative expression, but they're mostly very focused experiences.

[gunswordfist]

yes bdsowers, jetpack joyride is a great casual game. my favorite one since my newgrounds one. it's highly addictive; like sinless gambling.

[valrus]

Yeah, Jetpack Joyride is just very well done; it's just polished to a shine.  But it's a good game in the design sense, too.  It's got a simple input-feedback model that's been done hundreds of times, but associates that with a variety of obstacle types that require different approaches.  Then it has a bunch of powerups that change the input-feedback model (and therefore how you deal with obstacles).  THEN, some unusual missions then change that up again (like trying not to kill scientists, or not get any coins) and will make you play differently again (including playing differently with the powerups).  It keeps you adapting and learning for a lot longer than a lot of endless-type games.

Tiny Wings is very different -- much more minimalist, but lovely for that.  I think it's better off as it is, rather than complicate it with the kind of elaboration Jetpack Joyride has.

[Raptor85]

depends on what you deem casual, personally i like to cool down and relax playing games like Civilization or Alpha Centauri , long slow turn based strategy games, you can leave for an hour between turns if you want and the games last a long time, sometimes i'll just slowly build up my nation over the course of a few weeks of spare time here and there.


Also to the above, i definitely wouldnt call hearthstone casual, it's a pretty fast paced high-strategy game, which is also unfortunately highly pap-to-win especially at lower levels.

[s0]

tbh i think the distinction between "casual" and "core" games is more cultural than anything, i.e. it's based on what sort of audience theyre being marketed to rather than the design of the games themselves.

[Torchkas]

Is Journey a casual game?

[gunswordfist]

do racing games count?

[valrus]

tbh i think the distinction between "casual" and "core" games is more cultural than anything, i.e. it's based on what sort of audience theyre being marketed to rather than the design of the games themselves.

Yeah, everyone gripes about AAA's descent into handholding and big "go here markers", etc., whereas if you go to to casual you can plenty of games that are like games were 30 years ago: short, skill-based, hard, and with no interest in making sure anyone wins.

[s0]

otoh maybe "casual" and "hardcore" do exist in a non-marketing sense but they're different approaches to playing games rather than different approaches to designing them.

a whole lot of games actually allow for both modes of play: like raptor, i like playing complex strategy games like civ, heroes of might & magic and crusader kings when i just want to relax. puzzle & dragons is nominally a "casual" game but you can get really deep into the stat system and fine tuning your party if you so desire. a lot of fighting games and shooters can be either played as party games w/ friends or played competitively. you can play world of warcraft casually or, like, join a raid guild. you can just have fun building stuff in minecraft or build computers with redstone etc. etc.

of course im ignoring low barrier to entry as a requirement for "casual" games a bit, but a lot of "inaccessible" games allow for casual play once you've sat down and learned the mechanics, even freaking dwarf fortress.

[Dragonmaw]

If you're into puzzle games, Lyne is an especially good casual, relaxing puzzle game. Same for Hexcells.

[Tanner]

i am all about faerie solitaire

[speflunker]

I don't really know if these qualify as casual for everyone else but I "Casually" play Crossy Road, desert golf and threes.

Crossy Road I kind of mindlessly prod at and see how far I get and onjce I have died a few times it stops feeling casual pretty quick.

Desert Golf is the ultimate casual game for me though. Mainly because I dont really care how many swings Im doing it in. I just keep going not really caring about how bad im doing and every time I get the ball in the hole I feel satisfied.

Threes is an odd one for me I just keep swiping as quick as I can in the right direction. Sometimes I get a good score somtimes I don't. So long as Im not stopping to think about it for too long Im always happy to try again.

I suppose thats the running theme for me that makes something feel casual. It does have a certain amount of depth you can care about but ultimately if your not feeling competative you can still accomplish something in the game.

[AbrahamLure]

I found myself investing enormous amounts of time into Beastie Bay, but more recently I've been playing Puzzle Retreat and Train Conductor by The Voxel Agents, an indie team that creates games with an insane amount of polish and great way of going about puzzles.
I like games that have a natural addictive feel - eg. I keep playing due to well balanced difficulty curves. I very much dislike games on mobile that force you to wait unless you pay real money.
Back in my day waiting was what happened in Roller Coaster Tycoon when you spent all your money on coasters.
 

[Boreal]

Puzzle and Dragons is great, so is Disney Tsum Tsum.  Only drawback to both of those games is the (unfortunately now-ubiquitous) stamina system.

[s0]

the stamina system in PAD is so generous that you can literally play for hours on end w/o running out of stamina tho

[battlerager]

Super Hexagon (although the difficulty is SUPER HARDCORE)