User:Toaddoesnot/Hyper-casual game

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A hyper-casual game is a mobile video game that features easy-to-play, highly engaging gameplay compared with very minimalistic user interfaces. Hyper-casual games are usually free-to-play, with revenue mostly generated from In-App Purchases and ads. Subcategory of Casual games.

Hyper-casual game
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A hyper-casual game is a mobile video game which is easy-to-play, and usually free-to-play; they also feature very minimalistic user interfaces. Popularized in 2017 by game makers such as Kwalee, Ketchapp and Voodoo, these games can be quickly played after downloading, usually without any tutorial or instructions. They also often use a 2D design with a simple color scheme, easy mechanics adding to their simplicity. Usually featuring infinite looped mechanics, hyper-casual games are playable for an infinite amount of time, leading to their addictive nature. Some argue hyper-casuals are a business model, rather than a genre.[citation needed] These games are often played while multitasking, which is why their simple user interface is essential. Because of the lack of a robust in-game economy and free download cost of most hyper-causal games, revenue is mostly generated from ads.

Most of these ads come in the form of:


 * Rewarded videos (when these ad videos are watched, the player is rewarded with extra time, extra lives, or other in-game rewards)
 * Banner ads (ads that appear at the bottom of the user's screen)
 * Interstitial ads (advertisements that show between sessions)

History
Hyper-casual games gained traction in 2017 in mobile gaming, but are often seen as a genre similar to the 1970s video games that lacked detailed design and gameplay. The first hyper-casual game that gained wide popularity was Flappy Bird, which saw over 50 million downloads and generated around $50,000 a day in its prime. Since then, hyper-casual games have dominated top-charts in multiple mobile game stores such as the Google Play Store and the App Store (iOS). According to the EEDAR, the majority of mobile video-game users play while multitasking, and because of their simplicity, hyper-casual games have become increasingly popular among these users. In 2016, popular gaming company, Ubisoft, bought Ketchapp (one of the hyper-casual gaming company pioneers). In 2017, Goldman Sachs invested $200 million in hyper-casual gaming company Voodoo.

According to ironSource,[citation needed] hyper-casual games occupy 10 of the 15 top most downloaded games. Compare this to a year ago,[when?] when there were only 3 hyper-casual games in the top 15. In an interview with ironSource, founder of Destruction of Fun Mishka Katkoff explains their appeal:


 * “As casual games implement deeper, mid-core features they become more engaging, but also more complicated. This, in turn, opens up a segment for hyper-casual games to dominate – games that are easy to start and fun to play.”

Subgenres and mechanics
To distinguish different types of hyper-casual games, both “subgenres” and “mechanics” terms are used equally due to the gameplay often consisting of only one or two mechanics. There is also no definite list of all possible subgenres or mechanics: some publishers identify a number close to 20, while others stick to a few [game refinery]. The mechanics that are mentioned in the majority of the resources are:

Puzzle — players face a situation they need to find a solution to. Unlike other puzzle games, hyper-casual puzzles have very uncomplicated challenges that take minimum time to figure out, rarely progress in difficulty, and don't have the endpoint [InsightsHub][mobilefreetoplay]. To solve the puzzle, players typically move objects in space in a predefined correct way, although there are also variations such as drawing a direction in Happy Glass (2018) or getting the right color combinations in I Love Hue (2017).

Tap and Timing — players tap on the screen at a specific area and time. Based on the game this tap can be used for different purposes like to kick the ball in Soccer Kick (2018), make a jump in Fun Race 3D (2021), or perform the next cooking step in Perfect Cream (2020). In all cases, the most essential elements for winning are accuracy, reaction, and the ability to redo the attempts to perfect the score. [InsightsHub][mobilefreetoplay]

Stacking — with a tap on the screen, players place an object on top of the previously placed object at the time when it seems to align best. As the result, they have a growing stack that deteriorates in shape and/or steadiness because generally, players place an object perfectly in less than half of their moves. [mobilefreetoplay] Examples of this mechanic include Tower Bloxx (2005) and Rainbow Stacker (2014) and are often considered Tetris (1984) descender.

Steering and Swerving — players swipe the screen to the left and to the right with the finger to avoid obstacles and death traps and gather collectibles on their way, for instance, coins in Subway Surfers (2012). Often this subgenre shares its mechanics with the rising and falling type of hyper-casual game like Helix Jump (2018) where swerve is used while the gaming object goes up or down using real-like physics.[InsightsHub],

Merging — players perform a sequence of movements combining same-looking objects in order to turn them into another object that can be combined further respectively. Objects that are combined can represent the evolving species like in Homo Evolution: Human Origins (2018), numbers like in 2048 (2014), as well as characters, buildings, animals, vehicles, and so on. The sequence continues until the player either merged all objects and reached a final form or ran out of moves to make. [mobilefreetoplay]

Resizing / Growing — players control the direction of the object in the confined space, trying to move through the bonus collectibles and avoid obstacles and enemies. When players succeed, the playable object becomes bigger or longer, and when they fail it becomes smaller or shorter. The most notable example of resizing in length is Snake (1976), while an example of scaling is Agar.IO (2015), which gave the alternative name “.IO games” to the subgenre.[InsightsHub]

Monetization
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Popularity
As of 2020 statistics, hyper-casual games share about 30% of the downloads by gaming genre statistics, that amounted to $3.4. billion dollars of in-ad monetization revenue[Game IQ]. In 2022, even though the mobile market slightly declined overall, hypercasual games were the only genre that grew in 15% of downloads and increased purchase revenue by about 26% [deconstructoroffun].