Casual Games: A Hardcore Gamer’s Perspective

I’ve spent a rather alarming amount of time lately with a couple games that scratch the same itch for me. I’ve talked briefly about Recettear, the RPG where you run an item store. I ended up taking the smart phone plunge a couple weeks ago (much to my chagrin) and wasted no time buying Game Dev Story, a type of sim/RPG where you run a development studio. I’ve had a ton of fun with these games, and that’s been surprising to me. But first, a little backstory.