Hi. In recent years I've noted that game developers are focusing on developing very Big MMORPG systems, or very advanced (and complicated ) shooters with the lastest techonlogy avaliable on this world (I think that today's shooters must have the features of HalfLife2 for compete in this market). While these developers are putting their effort on make their titles full of features, they sacrifice the simplicity for fulfill the tecnology standars. So their games often lack on easy gameplay and gamers can't play them in an intuitive way. But I've discovered that simple games are still adictive, no matter if they don't have a very impressive technology. I meet many people that prefers games with simple action instead of those very Big RPG which ask a subscription fee for play. So concerning on ocasional games (For people who plays ocasionally) , is there big money on their market? I've found some interesting games those deserve some consideration: My Favorite Dinner Dash: http://www.playfirst.com/game/dinerdash Snail Mail: http://www.gamextazy.com/games/arcade-action/snailmail.html

are you kidding, there is ENOURMOUS money is that genre. There are only 3 genres making much money on PCs - MMO, FPS, and Casual.

Just look at the store shelves at BestBuy ... there are 20+ $20 casual games titles, 5-10 of which are recognizable names that have made great profits. That genre is only going to keep getting bigger, because almost by definitions there are more people who are not die-hard gaming geeks than those that are. And the non gamers almost all have some maner ofhobby or interest that could be used as the basis for a game. Just think of the popularity of fantasy legue sports in many areas of the country, or of the online movie stock game (where you fake invest in movie titles and score based on movie box office performance).

There's plenty of money for these types of games. For examples, look at things like PopCap's games (such as the extremely succesful Zuma).

Yes, there's a lot of money in casual games, though that market is getting saturated quickly, and the production budgets are rising really fast.

Right now, I suspect the next market will be digital distribution of niche titles.. the kind of games that we all used to play, but which are no longer profitable under the current cost/profit market. This includes games like MechWarrior4 (i.e. targetting mecha-fans wanting a hardcore simulation experience, rather than a more arcady mainstream experience), or a good Shoot-em-up (like Galaga). Or a nice classic adventure game (like Monkey Island).. look at what IDE is doing.

If you approach them from a 5 million dollar budget, and distribute at Walmart point of view, I doubt you'd reach break-even. If you can make and sell it for 250,000 and sell online, you might successfully hit your audience (with some clever marketing and word-of-mouth) and make back a pretty decent multiplier with a much lower number of sales.

Allan