Casual worlds: what does the genre that wins millions look like?

August 5, 2025

What games can we call casual? If you pay attention to the term itself, it is derived from the Latin casualis, which means casual. That is, these are games that are played not systematically, but occasionally. Accordingly, they have fairly simple rules, a small amount of text, and do not require deep computer knowledge. These games do not have a clearly defined category of players in terms of difficulty, and they have attractive and colorful graphics that make the gameplay more engaging.

The casual style of graphics has its own peculiarities and recognizable features. “Cute” is the perfect word to describe this style, as its images evoke warm, pleasant emotions. Silhouettes and shapes of objects are usually softened, rounded, and sometimes exaggerated to create the right visual effect. This rule applies to both UI and all game graphics. It is desirable that the outlines of objects are simple and easily recognizable. The number of details is significantly reduced, and the textures are distorted and enlarged. After these modifications, the graphics become cute and a little bit toy-like, which creates a pleasant and relaxing gaming experience for the user.

The colors used are clean and bright, and much attention is paid to the harmony of the chosen scales and the color interpretation of both game pieces and objects in general. To make the graphics attractive, artists use knowledge of warm and cold colors, the effect of light and air/distance on the depicted objects.

Due to their simple appearance, such graphics may seem very easy to produce, but this is not the case. Despite their cute appearance, such projects require deep expertise and thorough knowledge of classical artistic disciplines from art professionals. Stylized graphics require much more knowledge of perception and work with shape design.

So what projects can be classified as casual? Of course, the most popular type of casual games are match-3 games (Homescapes, Candy Crush Saga), where you need to combine chips of the same color and shape in a row to complete a task and get points. Also very popular are games with the search for objects (Junes Journey, Time Gap). Water sort games, puzzles, hyper-casual games with tactile mechanics, time management - all these are casual games. If we see such a variety of mechanics, we can understand how popular this genre is.

Many of these projects occupy leading positions in the Play market and the App store, and are therefore commercially viable. Mobile games are a worthy competitor to PC gaming projects. In casual games, monetization usually occurs through the display of advertisements, the sale of additional lives (a life in a game is an opportunity to continue playing after a mistake or failure to complete a level task), and boosters (special chips that help you complete game levels).

Beautiful graphics that immerse the player in the setting and help keep them engaged are one of the most important components of a successful casual project. We will be happy to help you with the development of graphics and even further support of your product.