The popularity of online gaming is one of the most resounding and interesting trends of recent years. It is an industry that continues to attract players, and for this reason, several companies involved in the creation of digital games are doing their best to meet an ever-growing demand.
In fact, this booming market attracts high-level professionals, creative designers who pay special attention to details, offering high quality products.
Globally, the online casino industry is estimated to reach approximately $92.9 billion by 2023. This success is significantly attributable to a technological development that has implemented game engines optimized for mobile devices.
Moreover, online casinos are gaining popularity day by day as more areas decide to regulate casino games with dedicated laws.
However, if we talk about iGaming, we can say that online slots are one of the most popular forms of entertainment for gamers. Currently, online slot machines are really appreciated. These are games that take inspiration from the popular slot machines in land-based casinos. New technologies offer different themes, stimulating visual and sound features with Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality features. Moreover, having mobile gaming compatibility is another factor that makes them particularly acclaimed.
But what are the key factors that make slots games so popular? How is a slot machine made and produced?
How Is A Slot Machine Created?
Conceiving, developing and creating a slot machine, is not a short process, but it is a journey that begins with the analysis of demand and includes most sophisticated programming languages. After the initial research phase, you go through the planning and creation stages, and then on to the final design.
In all these steps, from start to finish, experienced casino game development professionals come into play. These are key figures such as server developers; mathematicians and graphic designers; but also front/back-end developers. A key role is also played by the creative team, game testers and project managers. In other words, it is the work of the entire team in synergy that leads to the creation of competitive slot machines.
First Phase: Market Research
As we anticipated, the first phase of this process involves a complex market research, where the design team defines the features that are to be included in the game. In this phase, the key market segment is also identified. Once this first phase is done, a viable design is defined through voting and this first draft is passed to the creative team.
Phase Two: Slot Machine Creativity
At this point, the creative team comes up with a series of ideas and comparisons to existing slot machine designs, and it is this step that facilitates the process of creating a unique slot machine.
At this stage, we try to define the theme of a slot machine: we know how popular adventure-themed, fantasy-themed or mythological-themed slot machines are.
The elements of slot machines are often borrowed from movies, manga and anime, TV shows, novels, music bands, etc. In fact, digital game designers consider inspiration from these dimensions of entertainment useful for engaging players.
Once the theme is defined, they try to give the game a mood. Think about the graphic style, cartoon style animations or the more realistic ones. In this part, you conceptualize color combinations, soundtracks, characters and patterns and frequency of game bonuses and welcome features.
A good user-experience in the game offers twists and turns and other aspects that a player can easily expect, thanks to past interactions. In addition, the modern development of casino online with increasingly amazing technologies and retro vibes; slots inspired by celebrities and other popular characters – along with optimization for mobile devices – are the key core to their success.
This is a complex phase as the entire team has to rely on data obtained from research that facilitates the ability to identify ideal characters and story telling for a slot machine.
Third Step: Game Version Control and Play Testing
The fairness of a slot machine is ensured thanks to the Random Number Generator (RNG). This is a built-in algorithm that chooses numbers that correspond to various symbols and is able to ensure that the outcome of the game is purely random. When the preliminary version of the game is ready, a scheme is created to test the accuracy of the software compatibility and limit errors. This first verification is limited to only crucial aspects and only then the main version of the entire digital game design is checked.
In identifying the ideal market, developers also consider how well it matches the market itself, and the concept of Minimum Viable Product (MVP) in this part is crucial, as it allows the project administrator to assess both the market potential and the part of the market that the new game is going to saturate. In other words, MVP, is able to help the team of developers receive user feedback as quickly as possible in order to improve the product. Eventually, game testers also play a relevant role, as they allow you to identify system bugs or other features that need to be changed.
Additional functionality tests allow you to determine the functions of the slot machine software to discover any errors that compromise the user experience. Finally, compatibility testing is also essential, as it helps discover errors in the product’s functionality and more specifically in the hardware, software and graphics. Another essential piece of information from this testing is the ability to understand whether a game is optimized for mobile or desktop platforms.
Conclusion
Casino games are a growing market and especially slot machines which remain one of the most popular products among gamers. However, the process of slot machine development is complex and challenging and here we have explained how a slot machine is created, from conception to actual creation.
Designers consider several key factors and the game that is eventually released, is the result of synergistic efforts of various key figures. Examples include software engineers, designers, front-end developers, testers and project managers.
To produce effective slot machine, providers need to observe the market intensively. This is the only way to identify trends in what the public likes.
Finally, game testing can improve the user experience by identifying bugs or other malfunctions at an early stage.
