There are thousands of new casino games released each year. In terms of game development, it’s without a doubt the most densely populated market. However, it might seem strange that developers are able to keep coming up with new ideas that grab the attention of players. We’ve taken a look at some of the ways developers find new ideas that help them to create a selection of top-class casino games year after year.
Inspiration from past titles
This might seem like a bit of a cop out, but it’s a fact, many game developers look at game mechanics from other titles and copy them. You can look at any UK casino review and you will find huge swathes of games that are basically just clones of each other. What the developers tend to do is look at a game that is popular and come up with a new skin to give it a fresh look.
While this might seem like copyright infringement, the fact is that most developers work together in the industry, and they are okay with this practice. It means that the original game will get a bit more exposure when players find out what the new title is based on, so they let it continue.
Looking at the traditional video game market
This is something that casino game developers have done for a very long time – whether by signing licensing agreements or looking at gameplay mechanics, many modern games have found themselves new homes at online casinos. A great example of the first method is Tomb Raider. There are almost as many Tomb Raider slots as there are releases on game consoles. This is because the IP is well known, so it’s allowed game developers the opportunity to use it to market the slots to a wider audience.
The second method, taking game mechanics and repurposing them, isn’t quite as obvious to players. However, games such as Bejewelled and Tetris have actually found themselves used as inspiration for video slots over the last few years. Cluster pay games use collections of similar symbols to create a win, in a similar manner to creating lines in matching video games. It obviously has some differences, but the inspiration is plain to see.
Music
Music is a big inspiration for casino games. There are a lot of Guns n’ Roses slots on the market at the moment and a lot of this is to do with the appeal that the band still has with people. What these games tend to do is create features that are tenuously linked to the band and then they will make it themed around some of the songs to give fans what they want. It’s not just Axl and the gang that carry this out though, there are a lot of different musical based slots, each with varying levels of influence in place from the artist that they are based on.
