Yordan Georgiev, Head of Casino Division at Amusnet, discusses the company’s newest game releases and the trends influencing their development. He reveals the strategic thinking behind their slot games, the significance of partnering with the football legend Hristo Stoichkov, and how technology is utilised to maintain a competitive edge.
SlotBeats: Tell us a little bit about some of Amusnet’s recent releases. Is there a key trend that flows through the three titles?
Yordan Georgiev: Looking at a common trend, I can say that we are trying to release as many games as possible with a Bonus Buy feature. Our game producers are also investing time in designing games with different types of buy bonuses to be affordable for various segments of players.
SB: How important is it to have obtained an agreement to use football legend Hristo Stoichkov’s image to produce Stoichkov #8?
YG: It was a fundamental agreement as part of our strategy. It was crucial to have the contract signed before the European Championships and the game certified for release before the tournament. As we have achieved this milestone, we look forward to the next one and our clients can expect more games inspired by this iconic football legend.
SB: What is the process of designing a series of games like these, and what technical considerations do you need to make to produce top-performing games?
YG: Once you know what type of game you want to produce, the most important thing is to execute in-depth research to determine what markets you target and what audience you are trying to reach.
Once you have the answers, you can then think about the maths model and the best mechanic that will fit your game best. For me, the essence of producing a top-performing game is to have good maths. This is what will ensure continued engagement from the players.
Artwork and sounds are also essential. By carefully managing those components, we are trying to develop a series of top-performing games that cater to a wide range of players, ensuring both quality and player satisfaction.
SB: All these games have differing themes and concepts. How important is it for Amusnet to create different themes to target a wide range of players?
YG: It is crucial, as we are trying to reach different audiences. Variety helps keep players engaged. When players have multiple options that cater to their varying interests, they are more likely to spend more time on the platform.
Different regions and cultures have different preferences. By developing a wide range of themes, Amusnet can appeal to players from various parts of the world, expanding its market reach.
In summary, I would say that creating games with different themes is essential for our company. Such a strategy helps us maintain player engagement, expand our markets, stand out in competitive markets, leverage trends, and provide creative freedom for the development team.
SB: What are the main features of the games, and why did you specifically choose to implement those?
YG: Stoichkov #8: Stoichkov #8 is an exciting five-reel, 40-line fixed slot game. It offers fast-paced gameplay and introduces the players to one of the greatest football players – Hristo Stoichkov. We wanted to implement features that can keep the gameplay fast and, at the same time, offer good payouts in both the base game and free spins with a fairly simple mechanic.
The game focuses on Stoichkov as the WILD symbol, which helps players form winning lines. It offers expanding WILD that can land on second, third, and fourth reels. It expands when creating a winning line, and substitutes for all symbols on the same reel, except for the Bonus symbol. The other main feature is the Free Spins with Expanding Sticky Wild – those are triggered by landing three, four, or five Bonus symbols and awarding the players up to seven free rounds.
Whenever a Wild symbol lands during Free Spins, it expands and stays on the reel for the rest of the Free Spins. Wild can land and expand on all reels to cover all positions. providing the players with the opportunity to win some big prizes!
Cavemen and Dinosaurs: Feature 1: Instant Win. A small dinosaur has a random chance to run through the screen, dropping an egg containing a cash prize. This touch builds up the players’ anticipation and adds a nice layer of enjoyment when the feature occurs.
Feature 2: Free Spin Feature with Meteor Shower. We chose this specific feature as a reference to the supposed event that made dinosaurs extinct many, many years ago! While this is not the most popular game theme in the industry, the level of design and outstanding animations are bound to catch the attention of all players – from recreational to ones chasing those max wins!
Random Wilds – The meteor shower can add wilds to the reels on every free spin during the bonus feature.
Additional Free Spins – if a meteor lands on a “Bonus” symbol, the player is awarded extra free spins for more chances for big wins.
Orient Story Deluxe: We wanted to add more than one feature to the game to have varsity in the gameplay, but at the same time to have clear and easy-to-follow mechanics. For that, we added the extra prize row over the reels with three different features to win: Free Spins is a cult classic feature where the player gets 10 to 15 free spins but a bigger chance to retrigger or get any of the rest features.
Respins play after one of all symbols expands on reels 2 to 4, and then the first and fifth reels are re-scheduled with a great chance to hit 5 of a kind for that symbol – cash Prize, a bet multiplier from x2 up to x100. After we had our features, we clarified how all features can be triggered. This is where the Golden Lamp comes into place. All features are activated through the Golden Lamp. This way, the player can be assured that there is potential for a great win when the Golden Lamp lands on the reels.
SB: What is Amusnet’s approach to innovation in slot design?
YG: Our game producers are working closely with AI. This is very helpful as they are designing the concept of the new game without many iterations with the game artist. Game producers have some visuals they can present to the game designer, saving a lot of time.
Once the kick-off is done, the work for game artists is reduced to developing the concepts and polishing the symbols, and we are pretty fast with the approved design of each game. Using AI as a tool, we are trying to reduce the time spent marketing our games.
SB: What can we expect from Amusnet going forward, and are any new titles in the pipeline?
YG: We are about to finalise exciting cluster games with increasing multipliers, which can be expected by the end of July. Crash games are also on our roadmap for this year. As part of our global expansion strategy, we are working on different themes and aiming to reach different audiences and markets.
