Casual game has six meanings:
- A game targeted at muggle players such as housewives or families
- A game featuring play organised around a simple and natural dynamic which intends to provide short, fun and highly repeatable experiences
- A game with a colourful and unthreatening visual style
- Most forms of mobile phone game or Flash games on the web
- A game largely composed of mini-games
- A game which is not intended for so-called 'hardcore' gamers
The games industry often characterises the entire market as a duality between casual and hardcore to categorise players of different cultures or expertise. This has proved increasingly inadequate to describe what is a much more complicated landscape.
