Of course, the reason for the Casual Connect Conference is games. So, let’s report on some of those. Games that I’ve seen here, or developers/publishers have either mentioned to me or have sent me press releases about:

Reflexive Entertainment has released The Great Tree. An item collection game in a fantasy setting, The Great Tree adds in a component of story-telling combined with a bit of fantasy-horror. Very smooth gameplay, though I thought the opener is wayyyyyyyy too long. Also, it was a bit confusing for me to see what I had actually achieved each level in the beginning…the game doesn’t inform you about this. However, I hope that doesn’t turn people off, because the game actually is a lot of fun. Better, you can play with a laptop touch pad very easily…which implies how easy it would be to translate this title to an iPhone environment (hint, hint).

The Cartoon Network has pared up with Grigon Entertainment and used the Unity game engine to create a kids/tweens browser-based MMOG. Of course, the Unity web-player is compatible with Mac and PC, so Mac kids can play this game. Unfortunately, no one from the Cartoon Network was there at the conference, so I couldn’t talk to them about the game. But I did talk to the folks from Unity. Unfortunately, you will have to wait for the next iGame Radio episode to hear the interview. ;)

Mousechief (that’s mischief with a mouse) has released their game Dangerous High School Girls in Trouble! Long title, cool game. This is not a family or kids game, but rated teen and up by the TIGRS rating system. It provides a more mature storyline to a boardgame style casual game, and allows players to explore the story through the characters. I’ve been communicating with Keith, the guy from Mousechief, for a few years now and watched this game evolve. He’s put a lot of hard work and thought into it, and it’s finally paying off. Not only has he released a really cool game, but he’s not got a lot of people interested in it…even some retailers.

Freeze Tag has announced an iPhone version of Etch A Sketch which, if you think about it, was just a perfect fit with a device that you can touch and shake to make changes to. I wanted to chat with the guys from Freeze Tag but, despite the fact that they had a booth, THEY WERE NEVER THERE! They also didn’t wear their trademark t-shirts this year, so it was hard to pick them out. So, I’ll just have to ping their PR person to get more info for you. Oh, and they also have released a Mac/PC version for download as well, with more extensive drawing tools.

EA Mobile announced a lineup of titles for the iPhone as well. Scrabble, Sudoku, and Tetris (woot!) will be released in the near future at the Apple App Store. But, again, nobody from EA Mobile was at Casual Connect to chat with. If you have ever dealt with EA (chances are, you probably haven’t) they have their corporation separated into several divisions, and the divisions don’t really chat with each other. So, if you chat with the guys from Pogo, for example, they can’t tell you squat about what the folks from the mobile side are doing. Sigh.

Which is why I also couldn’t get any additional info about the other cool announcement EA Mobile made: exclusive Spore content! As apart of a deal between AT&T and EA Mobile, AT&T will exclusively offer the mobile version of Spore, Spore Origins, until September 4, 2008. A giveaway promotion, as well as free downloads of the Spore Creature Creator with exclusive content will be available to AT&T customers. Unless, of course, you happen to be an iPhone user! There is no way to download content from the AT&T website to the iPhone, and the App Store had no Spore content on it as of this morning. Well, ain’t that a slap in the face!

They also stated in their press release that they are offering a complimentary copy of the PC version of Spore free to new customers of AT&T, but when you go to the website, it’s actually the PC or Mac version. Further, this means that, as far as EA is concerned, Spore is done or they wouldn’t be giving it away now! So, why are they giving away free copies to select people this soon before the official release date? I thought only us reviewers got that benefit! ;)

PopCap announced Bejeweled 2 for the iPhone (noticing a trend here?). Like anyone would be surprised. Now, this one was all my fault…PopCap was there at the conference in force (in fact, I went to one of their parties, much fun was had, and ran into their PR guy for a short bit during the con). I had actually wanted to talk with them more extensively, but never ran into their PR guy again. I should have set up time before hand, but my bad. So, I will get something more for you about this and future Mac stuff from PopCap later.

I chatted with other folks about their games, some of which would be available for the Mac when the game was finished. There was a gambling Sim from some guys from Europe, and another guy who used to work for Hidden Path Entertainment and is now on his own (and told me nothing about his game, so I can’t give you a hint). Others showed me alphas of their iPhone games, like one that was a dragon, I think, flying using the accelerometer.

Lots of creativity, especially in the iPhone arena, but Mac development is not dead here. Different companies still have different views on support, though. Some believe that they only release a Mac version after they have some kind of data that says this particular game will float in the Mac market. Others will release most of their games to Mac a certain period of time after the PC version. Still others automatically assume Mac and PC release together. We’re not going to see Mac development going away, and in fact I’ve seen people comment about how they decided to get a Mac, either because they felt that they needed one to develop for the iPhone, or because they enjoyed developing for the iPhone and got intrigued by the Mac.

I predict, though, that at next year’s Casual Connect the big trend will be iPhone games and how to monetize them properly.