Millions of people browsing the internet for information and entertainment automatically create a market for casual games that can be played through a browser without any additional downloads or installations. Casual surfers of the Net usually have few spare minutes to spend on such games to help them relax and enjoy.

These games in contrast to traditional console or PC games do not need to provide a total immersion experience. They should ideally be payable to a satisfactory finish in few minutes at one sitting. Additionally they should be payable using the mouse alone or minimal amount of keys on the keyboard. However interactivity and reaction time should be high. While they do not need to provide fancy 3D graphics we are used to these days in traditional PC games, they, in order to attract and keep the attention of the gamers, should be colorful and fun with some corresponding sound effects.

Given the size and diversity of the potential audience, which is basically everyone with an Internet connection world over, these casual games can range widely in genre. They can be fashioned after traditional board games ranging from checkers to scrabble to chess. They can be card games, puzzles, races of every type, action and shootem ups, sports stimulations, fashion makeovers, and many others. These games can be targeted at various audiences specifically, whether they are kids, adults, or women, oriented games. Most such games are offered free by ad or community supported web based businesses, or as extras in other general websites or portals. However some games can only be accessed through subscription.

There are several web technologies that can be used to create such games. However, by far the most popular are flash games. Nowadays almost all browser are equipped with Flash players, even if they are not, the flash player plug-in is easily downloadable from the Net in few minutes. It is also kept up to date. Unlike some other technologies used for casual web based games, most flash games do not usually need any interaction with servers, so can be very fast and reactive, enhancing the enjoyment.

Given the utility of flash to web interactivity in general, diverse range of Flash development tools ranging from authoring tools and integrated development environments or IDEs have come in to being .This means that almost anybody with some technology know how and creative flair now have the tools needed to create these flash games. With additional focus and some genius, resulting games can be truly outstanding, and crucially when it comes to games, even addictive.