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Casual games have dramatically expanded the audience for video games, and offered developers more opportunities to connect with players than ever. The Game Connection Development Awards has an entire category dedicated to such titles.
Popular business and networking event Game Connection America will once again run alongside GDC in San Francisco next week, and will be highlighting some of the most promising upcoming titles with its own awards ceremony.
Previously known as Selected Projects, the Game Connection Development Awards are designed to reward some of the most innovative titles from studios big and small, across various platforms and in various states of development.
All this week, Develop will be rounding up the finalists in all ten categories. You can find out more about the awards at www.game-connection.com.
These are the finalists for Best Casual project:
Hitman Go
Studio: Square Enix Montreal
Country: Canada
Platforms: Tablets and smartphones
Stage: Released
By building a game around the core concept of strategy and cunning and avoiding third-person gun battles and more complex game mechanics, Square Enix Montreal has made a fresh take on IO Interactive’s Hitman series that is more accesible than the source material. The board game aesthetic also makes it more inviting to those who aren’t fans of violent games.
Piano City
Studio: Room 8 Studio
Country: Ukraine
Platforms: Tablets and smartphones
Stage: Released
Clearly developed for a casual and younger audience, Piano City’s intuitive musical mini-games and brightly coloured art styles makes this far more welcoming that previous music titles such as Guitar Hero and Rock Band. Sharing a game structure and visual style with casual mobile hits also means mainstream gamers can jump right into this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFWB62Mzo0U
Puny Stupid Humans
Studio: Gorange & Steel Monkeys
Country: United States & Belarus
Platforms: Tablets and smartphones
Stage: Released
This 3D strategy game appeals to a wider audience with its quirky art style and accesible mechanics, making it easy for players of any experience to construct and customise their underground city, as well as unleash hordes of monsters against other players.
Sequenced
Studio: Apelab
Country: Switzerland
Platforms: Tablets, smartphones and Oculus Rift
Stage: Playable Demo
Less of a game and more of an interactive animation series, Sequenced has been optimised for virtual reality and mobile devices so the only input users need to worry about is physically turning around. The story progresses different depending on which angle they face or which character they are focusing on, with 360-degree animated scenes putting them in the centre of the action.
SEQUENCED Episode 1: LAND 52 an interactive adventure for VR and mobile – Teaser from apelab on Vimeo.
Typoman
Studio: Brainseed Factory
Country: Germany
Platforms: PC, Wii U and PS4
Stage: Playable Demo
This clever puzzle game’s use of words and letters means it doesn’t take long for players to understand how to solve puzzles and overcome obstacles. With simple controls and a hopefully steady difficulty curve, Typoman could serve as an introduction to various puzzle titles, such as Limbo.
