http://games.hostedstuff.com/games/slimeball/

It’s not multiplayer with more than 1 pc, but 2 players on 1 pc. Ideally suited for breaks during group-work pc sessions.

Although, I think you wouldn’t consider it “Casual”, because it’s almost the opposite of what you try to achieve:

=> it has very very basic graphics
=> it has 1 sound effect
=> it has no story at all

but the gameplay is very fun!

Just thought I’d pass this along if you weren’t aware of this site.

http://www.brettspielwelt.de/gate/jsp/base/index.jsp?nation=en

I know TTR popular as a board game and that it’s fundamentally a good game.

But I think your second paragraph sort of indicates why I don’t consider it a Casual Game. As you say, it’s more of a promotional game than a real attempt at producing a viable business from online gaming. It’s not polished (or easy) enough to appeal to the current Casual Gaming crowd. I think it could get there, but it would need work. I haven’t played the on-line Settlers, so I can’t comment on that one. Here’s some things I listed in an e-mail to Bruce Geryk that I think TTR would need to be really viable as a true ‘Casual Game’:

1) More sound (there’s only 1 sound effect in the whole game)
2) In game tutorial
3) More hover help (lots of small, unlabeled buttons and icons)
4) Bigger chat area
5) Probably beyond the scope of this game, but I’d love more advanced multi-player features, like nice icons for players, and support for voice chat or even video chat (like they have on the Mac)
6) The game itself could have been tweaked for the computer implementation, at least as an option. The route cards, in particular, are too limited – only about half the cities on the USA map ever have routes. St. Louis, for instance, never has a route. For a board game, this makes sense – production costs force you to limit the number of possible cards/routes. But it’s moot for computers.

To which, I would also add, more visual pizzazz and animation. The basic graphics, taken, I assume, straight from the board game, are quite nice. But there’s little of the wow! factor that a computer game needs.

I have a quick question about your dismissal of Ticket to Ride (TTR) as a casual game. You do know that it’s an adaptation of a (very) popular board game? It recently won the Spiel der Jarre (sp?) in Germany as the best family board game from last year. Granted, the tutorial could be simpler, but I think that if the game was to be offered on a large portal site, it would be incredibly popular. Microsoft has tried this last year with Settlers of Catan and, unless I’m terribly wrong, is having a good success with it.

Also, don’t forget that the online version of TTR is meant mostly as a promotional item for the physical version of the game. It is not meant as a way to make money directly since there is no fee or publicity (other than for Days of Wonder) associated with it.

Steph Brochu