In the latest episode of Beyond the Reels, CasinoBeats’ Danny Lee was joined by Hubert Spala, Game Producer and Head of Studio at AvatarUX to discuss the studio’s latest PopWins slot release, HelioPOPolis.
HelioPOPolis places a futuristic spin on an Egyptian theme, utilising AvatarUX’s proprietary reel-expanding slot mechanic PopWins on a 5×3 reel slot with 32,768 ways to win and a maximum win of up to x20,000 the player’s stake.
Explaining how the PopWins mechanic allows the studio to provide players with an engaging base game, Spala stated that “the base game should be exciting”.
“After all, this is where most players are testing the water with all the games, checking out how it feels, and PopWins is the perfect mechanic for it because it enhances the most important aspect of the game, which is the winning.
“In other games that don’t have the PopWins mechanic, winning is the peak. You hit the win and it’s done. With PopWins, each win can explode into another win and another win and so we’re prolonging this high as much as possible.”
Moving on to the game’s bonus features, the company’s Head of Studio declared that: HelioPOPolis is “pretty rich”, noting that there are “quite a few features going on in there”.
“The major thing is that we divide them [the free spins game modes] into two sets of features that are being chosen by the player whenever they enter the bonus, either through the base game or the buy bonus.
“The key features are the synced reels, matched with the big symbols, and the classic wilds with expanding wilds.
“On top of that, in both game modes, we have mystery symbols to either further spice up the games and together they make for exciting mixes of things that can happen during the bonus game that make the winning and hunting for symbols much more exciting.”
Commenting on the advantages of offering a choice between two bonuses, Spala explained: “There is a lot of variety to the game and because of this, player agency is always coveted because the players can pick the feature set that works with them.
“This extends the number of players that will be satisfied with the game, because there is a little something for everyone. So one group will love the synced reels and another group will like the expanded wilds and everything works perfectly.”
Click the video above to hear the full interview in which Spala sheds light on an industry demand for buy bonuses, the inspiration behind the evolved Egyptian theme and future plans for AvatarUX and PopWins.
