The Copenhagen-based studio The Game Equation consists of developers who previously contributed to the top-selling (and now a bad major motion picture!) Hitman series of games, who have decided to focus on an entirely different direction – casual games. “After working on top-rated shooters for years, we were ready to work in a smaller company and make smaller games. We started to notice how people with our background were making top hits in the casual games industry,” explains Brian Meidell, co-owner of the Copenhagen based company, The Game Equation. “We realized that the high end of the casual games industry was within our reach, and that the shorter product cycles and smaller company setting was exactly what we wanted.

Top-tier developers making a switch to the casual games sector? It’s happened before, and as the casual gaming market continues to grow in leaps and bounds it is bound to happen again.

The company’s first game, Deep Blue Sea (demo for Mac and PC available here), is a pretty standard swap-three puzzler with a treasure hunting theme that adds a slight bit of strategy by requiring you get your diver and assorted treasures to the bottom of the screen in order to progress to the next level. It’s got some lovely music, but for the most part it’s just your standard, addictive little time-waster of a puzzle game. That doesn’t really matter. What matters – and what is the main force driving the casual market – is that people are going to download the demo and a good number of them will pay $US 20 for this tiny little game.

What I personally find interesting is that this is sort of a de-evolution of the gaming industry. Back in the late 80′s and early 90′s, you would download shareware from companies like ID Software and Epic Megagames and then fork out money to download the rest of the game, allowing the companies to grow. Now the process is happening in reverse, as console developers migrate towards the casual market. Just a trend to keep your eye on, and a puzzle game to while away your first day back on the job.