This year’s Casual Connect Seattle seemed to me much more popular than last year. I noticed more booths as well as more people visiting them. At every table sat people in the midst of interviews and discussions, good seats at the seminars were difficult to come by, and more thn a few exec’s ran out of business cards (which tells me that they were just as surprised as I was). Still the overall mood felt very positive.
What I noticed most as far as content goes, was the huge emphasis on mobile (namely iPhone) and social gaming. These are the two areas companies are venturing into full force, with both new ideas and classic hits. There was even a mobile meetup at the end of the day today which was reportedly very well attended and got pretty boisterous. The new complexity and sophistication in flash games ran a close second. Flash umbrella companies are emerging to help consumers wade through the sheer vastness that no one seemed to know just what to do with last year, but also to help independent developers not get lost in the vastness of the flash ocean.
Labels still remained a good part of people’s conversations as well, which kind of intrigued me. There is so much effort spent on denouncing or trying to change the label of casual games – or casual gamers (it’s here to stay, people) vs. hardcore games or gamers. Arguments can be (and were) made that, in some ways, everyone who plays is a casual gamer in some sense of the word. Still more labels are creeping upon us such as crossover and universal. Hooray for man’s need to define everything, but resistance to be defined.
All in all, I was pleased to see evidence of the growth throughout the casual gaming industry through the amount of people in attendance, continuing innovation on the side of producers and developers, and the continuing success of favorites as well as expansion of newer companies.
I had the chance to talk with some really interesting people with great ideas and energy surrounding their close futures, and see first hand some new things on the horizon for some of our favorites. Stay tuned for more coverage of this year’s Casual Connect!