Quick Take: Star Trek Bridge Crew

Posted by Rampant Coyote on May 31, 2017

Many years ago, my wife won a free pass to a cool starship group experience. This was back before things like escape rooms were a thing, but it was a similar (but more expensive) idea. A big ol’ trailer was set up as the bridge of a starship, everyone was given a tunic and instructions […]

Filed Under: Casual Games, Impressions, Virtual Reality - Comments: 2 Comments to Read

Dating Sim + Horror

Posted by Rampant Coyote on December 30, 2014

I can’t say I’m a connoisseur of Dating Sims, but the ones I have played felt like a very interesting and different subspecies of RPG. If you haven’t played one – it’s a specially focused implementation of a “Life Sim.” If you haven’t played one of those … well, you know what “The Sims” is? […]

Filed Under: Casual Games, Indie Horror Games - Comments: Comments are off for this article

The End of the “Casual Era?”

Posted by Rampant Coyote on November 17, 2014

First things first: so-called “Casual Games?” Not going away. Ever. In fact, you could argue that thanks to mobile gaming, they are bigger than ever. WAY bigger. What are casual games? They are games preferred by “casual gamers” – the ones who don’t have the depth of interest or time commitment of the hardcore fans. They […]

Filed Under: Biz, Casual Games - Comments: 4 Comments to Read

Indie Games: After the Gold Rush?

Posted by Rampant Coyote on December 27, 2012

I guess this is a little bit of a follow-up from yesterday’s post, but allow me to get a little pessimistic for a minute. Except I personally think I’m being realistic. Indie games have been enjoying a gold rush, a boom. Inevitably, after the boom peaks, comes a bust – a contraction. Almost everybody knows […]

Filed Under: Biz, Casual Games, Indie Evangelism, Production - Comments: 2 Comments to Read

Some Indies are Dickweeds

Posted by Rampant Coyote on February 2, 2012

As I tried to explain earlier this week, there is a big difference between being inspired by a game and making something similar, and ripping it off “practically pixel for pixel.” It’s the difference between advancing the art (or industry), and cannibalizing it. While I don’t know this guy or the context in which he […]

Filed Under: Biz, Casual Games - Comments: 19 Comments to Read

Bite-Sized Hardcore Gaming Manifesto

Posted by Rampant Coyote on January 4, 2012

Cliff Harris breaks things down in a way that I think many of us here feel. The industry these days likes to divide the market into two groups: Hardcore gamers with lots of time on their hands and a passion for realistic violence, high-action, and long games; and the casual gamers, who are almost exclusively […]

Filed Under: Casual Games, Indie Evangelism - Comments: 10 Comments to Read

Attack of the Clones

Posted by Rampant Coyote on January 19, 2011

I don’t have issues with certain things that are called “cloning” games. Everybody copies / borrows game mechanics, UI layouts, control schemes, and whatnot from successful games. If we had to reinvent the wheel every time we made a game,  we’d lose the advantage of standing on the shoulders of giants. Great ideas are meant […]

Filed Under: Biz, Casual Games - Comments: 8 Comments to Read

Flash Love Letter, Set To Music

Posted by Rampant Coyote on January 10, 2011

Based on DanC’s “Flash Love Letter” article from 2009 explaining why Flash was such a powerful platform for indie game developers, somebody has now gone and put  (a hyper-abbreviated version of) it to music. I laughed my butt off watching this thing – so be warned if you are watching at work. But I think […]

Filed Under: Casual Games - Comments: 7 Comments to Read

Bejeweled 2 FREE Today Only

Posted by Rampant Coyote on October 10, 2010

Okay, the site is like TOTALLY slammed right now with people right now, but until 10:10 PM Tonight Pacific time, Bejeweled 2 is FREE at popcap.com to celebrate the 10th birthday of Bejeweled! (And, as we know, thus began the casual game phenomenon….)

Filed Under: Casual Games, Free Games - Comments: 5 Comments to Read

Room Escape Games and Micro-RPGs

Posted by Rampant Coyote on September 10, 2010

Classic graphic adventure gaming has had a bit of a casual resurgence lately with the appearance of “Room Escape” games. If you haven’t played any yet (and I’ve only played a couple), they are basically tiny adventure games, usually written in Flash, that have gained quite a bit of popularity. They take place in a […]

Filed Under: Adventure Games, Casual Games, Design - Comments: 9 Comments to Read

Casual Games: After the Gold Rush

Posted by Rampant Coyote on June 29, 2010

As an indie who came on the scene just before casual games pretty much took over and convinced many in the industry that “indie” meant “casual” (now it seems to mean, “pretentious experimental web games”), I must confess a tiny bit of schadenfreude at seeing the air rushing out of the casual gaming balloon. But […]

Filed Under: Casual Games - Comments: 6 Comments to Read

The Casual Games Gold Rush is Over

Posted by Rampant Coyote on June 3, 2010

No, they aren’t dead. Not even dying. But it seems that the casual game boom has finally come to an end. Gamezebo: Where Have All the Good Games Gone? My thoughts: This is so very, very predictable to the point of being boring. It is a textbook example of the industry life cycle (which closely […]

Filed Under: Casual Games - Comments: 6 Comments to Read



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