Roundtable: Building a Successful Sequel Slot
Sequels within the entertainment industry generate hype and drive interest back into an existing brand. Game studios are currently working on a sequel to their previous titles. Jo Purvis, Director of Key Accounts and Marketing UK at Blueprint Gaming, Amit Samji, Senior Game Producer at Push Gaming and Mark Claxton, Head of Games at iSoftBet are the game developers who answered questions about the development of a game.
Jo Purvis, Amit Samji, Mark Claxton, Steven Cross and Mario Benito are in the roundtable discussion on building a successful sequel slot.
Roundtable discusses how to identify which slot releases earn a sequel.
Jo Purvis is not interested in direct sequels. He prefers to focus on giving a slightly different offering to the player. He is constantly asked about sequels, but prefers one-off games. Some games are better suited to being a one off, whereas others lend themselves more naturally to a sequel.
Jammin Jars 2 was developed around the Giga Jar feature. The company takes pride in the games they produce and they don't release sequels simply for the sake of it. Amit Samji explains how they approach development. He explains the most important factor in a successful sequel is if the original gameplay can be expanded further.
Steven Cross is a game designer at SC. SC is data-driven and focuses on creating sequels for the highest-performing titles.
Mark Claxton explains how to build a successful sequel. Hot Spin Megaways is the third in the series. It combines the iconic mechanic with iSoftbet features. The second version was made into a Deluxe version.
Mario Benito is responsible for R Franco's slots department. He works daily to review the portfolio and find out which games are achieving the high standards. If the company is happy with a game, it tries to improve it by releasing a sequel.
Jammin’ Jars 2 is a sequel to the first slot game. It is important to keep the original gameplay intact. Dr. Random from TIME LAB II – Olympic Games returns to present the adventures. It's important for the game to maintain the graphical look and feel. The game is built from the ground up. In movies sequels are a continuation of what has gone before. For slot games it's a case of building from scratch. They need to provide players with a recognizable but wholly different proposition. This is the approach of the company. Their players are at the heart of all they do.
JP has just launched Fishin’ Frenzy: The Big Catch and Luck O”The Irish: Fortune Spins 2. SC is working on The Goonies Return and Jammin‘Jars 2, which is a sequel to the first game. AS is developing the fourth game in the Diamond Link series, DiamondLink: Mighty Emperor. They are looking forward to sharing more details on the Goony sequel. They also discuss the game mechanics of the games. The game is progressive, there are Fruit Blast, Instant Prizes and the Giga Jar feature. There are also new visuals that see play take place in a club/disco.
"Hot Spin" sequel pushes the boundaries of the Hot Spin series and is a great addition to the current product.