Welcome to Casuality Europe!

2005 has been a great year for the Casual Games Industry. What are we are expecting for the new year of 2006? What are the trends and industry goals that will be discussed at the conference? What support and resources are avaliable to developers, publishers and distributors looking to get into casual games?

We will also discuss the conference format and how to get the most out of all the activities planned at the event, including networking with others at the event and parties and how to have a safe stay in Amsterdam!

We all have seen what casual games are, and which games have been successful. But what’s in the mind of the casual game user? Who is the audience? What kind of games are they looking for? What gameplay mechanics are more successful than others? What aesthetic elements are important? Jason Kapalka will talk about the basics of casual game design and how to make sure your game will appeal to casual gamers.

Jason Kapalka, Creative Director & co-Founder PopCap Games

What do the portal owners think about casual games? What types of games do they want? How do they see their audience? Session will be in a very open format, with questions from the audience welcome.

Moderator: Dylan Solomon, Chief Operating Officer Softwrap
Mickaël Ivorra, Head of Business Development Wanadoo France Telecom
Adam Schaub, Product Manager Yahoo! Games Europe
Mathieu Nouzareth, President Boonty
Christoph V Reibniz, Web.de
Adrian Annoff, Senior Editor & Programming Manager Games, AOL Germany

You decided that you want to start on your own. You got fed up by working in your full time job. You heard about casual games, and you heard about how people are making lots of money with them. You want to start, but you don’t know how. This session is just for you then.

Moderator: Harald Riegler, Sproing
Konstantin Ewald, Osborne Clarke
John Cook, Bad Management
Wade Tinney, Founder and Game Designer Large Animal
Alexander L. Fernandez,CEO Streamline Studios

We know that the try and buy business model is very successful in the United States, and up to some point it’s becoming successful in the UK and Germany. But how about the other markets? Empirical data proves that 20 euros for a game are a hard sell in Italy and Spain. How do we come up with effective business models for each country? What alternatives we have in order to have profits in every market? This session will have business and marketing experts from across Europe who have implemented innovative business models that go beyond the try and buy format

Moderator: Julie Pitt, General Manager RealArcade
Kai Bolik, CEO & co-Founder GameDuell GmbH
Eric Bethke, CEO GoPets Live
Riccardo Zacconi, CEO Midasplayer
Mathieu Nouzareth, President Boonty

The Next Frontier: The Early Days of Web-to-Mobile Community Gaming, Experiences from Pioneers

In this session, casual game designers will talk about the development of a very successful casual game. Why they decided to make that game, what went right, what went wrong. Each game will be different from the others in game mechanic, and the platform that has been targeted to.

Moderator: Eric Tams, Senior Game Developer PopCap
Nick Fortugno, Senior Game Designer gameLab
Daniel Bernstein, President and CEO Sandlot Studios
Gameloft

Making games for Europe, North America and Asia: common challenges how others are overcoming them. Discussion will focus on: localization, gameplay differences, and payment options.

Moderator: Colin Cardwell, Director 3rd Sense International
Dave Williams, Chief Marketing Officer and GM Shockwave
Mahmoud Ali Khasawneh, Founder Quirkat
Jenny Suh, CEO RedJump
Maria Sayans, EA Europe
Sunny Park, Executive Managing Director, International Business Division, Gravity

Have you got terribly confused by some clauses in your publishing or distribution deal? Did you have a terrible headache after reading all the definitions? Have you discovered later on that you got screwed over because you didn’t understand what some clauses meant? In this session, we’ll discuss about contract formats, and what some standard terms mean for you the developer. We will also talk about negotiation techniques so contracts are fair for all parties involved.

Moderator: Miguel Oliveira, General Manger Blue Fish
David Nixon, Director of Publishing Oberon Media
Michael Mei, Business Development Reflexive Entertainment
Lukas John, Snowstep
David Solari, Codemasters

Based on one of the most successful moments at the Casual Games Conference in Seattle, hype vs the real deal will have the presence of veteran and so-called visionaries of the casual games industry. In this session, every panelist has to answer leading questions by saying if it’s hype or the real deal, and they will have 30 seconds to answer why.

Moderator: Joel Brodie, Managing Director JoJu Games
Gabe Zichermann, Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer Boonty Games
Rugter Peters, CEO Zylom
Mark Cottam, President MumboJumbo
Michael Schutzler, SVP World Wide Games RealArcade

In this session will cover the typical development team, tools used, and the milestones achieved in a casual game development project. Significant time will be left for discussion, moderated by a casual games producer.

Wade Tinney, Founder and Game Designer Large Animal

Have you ever wanted to build a Multi-Player game? Have hosting and customer care costs deterred you from building them? Do you know exactly what the business model is? In this session, multi-player solution providers will talk about the opportunities for developers, the types of games that can be built, and the ways to generate revenue.

Mark Frohnmayer, President GarageGames
Adeo Ressi, CEO & Founder Game Trust

Casual game business models and how digital rights managment and eCommerce is evolving to provide more sales opportunities.

Robb Lewis, Sr Director of Products Macrovision Trymedia Games
CJ Wolf, CEO iWin Inc
Markus Friedrichs, Business Development, Webplay Click & Buy
Yoav Arnstein, VP International Business Development, Eyeblaster
Shawn McMichael, Group Product Manager Microsoft Casual Games

Casual Games on Mobile: Why Operators and Publishers are Excited to See More Casual Mobile Content

Lessons learned from leaders in the space that have had success developing highly successful original titles, licenses and remakes of classic parlor games.

Moderator: Paul Munford, Player-X
Craig Holland ,CEO Freeze Tag
Erica Chriss, VP of Business Development Limelife Mobile Games
Matt Spall, CEO Morpheme Wireless Ltd
Tom Hume, Future Platforms