Here at SlotBeats, we dare to venture through numerous slot titles and experience different genres, with the latest edition of Beyond the Reels making us step into the gilded ruins of Fantasma Games’ Golden Castle Titanways.
Joining James Ross, reporter for SlotBeats, on the adventure was Tianzhi Zhou, product owner and mathematician at Fantasma Games, who offered his insight into the title’s debut Titanways mechanic, explaining why certain features were included before touching upon the overall design of the game.
Explaining how the Titanways mechanic works, Zhou noted: “The Titanways mechanic is a twist to the standard ways variation. The interesting part of Titanways is that it intermingles oversized symbols. The tall symbols aren’t that interesting but the fat symbol is the interesting part.
“With those fat symbols, you can get a win with just one symbol if you land a 3×3 on reel one. That’s the interesting part of the Titanways mechanic. It makes it much easier to get long wins, to make sure of reels four, five and six and it has a very good synergy with Avalanche.
“When you win, you always have a chance of avalanching other oversized symbols and then it plays like a linked reel making it easier to get another winning combination.”
Throughout the game, regular symbols can appear in five different sizes: 1×1, 1×2, 1×3, 2×2 and 3×3. However, a symbol’s height has no impact on its value. 1×1, 1×2 and 1×3 symbols are evaluated as one symbol, whilst 2×2 and 3×3 symbols are evaluated as one symbol on each individual reel they cover.
A Titanways win occurs when three or more identical symbols land on consecutive reels from the leftmost to right. All wins pay left to right and the win is multiplied by the number of winning symbols per reel, according to the Paytable and by the multiplier (if any).
Meanwhile, the Wild Haunt feature is activated for each Ghost King symbol landing on the reels.
The Wild Haunt feature randomly selects one non-1×1 symbol and disassembles it into multiple 1×1 symbols of the same kind. Each 1×1 symbol the Wild Haunt Feature creates also may be randomly upgraded to a Wild symbol.
Finally, collecting three Bonus symbols in a Base Game round activates 10 Phantom Free Spins. In the Phantom Free Spins, there is a win multiplier that starts at x1 and is increased by one after each Avalanche.
Commenting on the launch of the title, Fredrik Johansson, commercial director at Fantasma Games, explained: “Golden Castle is the first title to feature our innovative and revolutionary Titanways mechanic which provides an entirely new way to win system for a unique player experience.
“We believe that driving innovation in mechanics is the best way to create slots that are compelling and entertaining for both experienced casino players as well as a new generation of player trying online gambling for the very first time.
“Golden Castle Titanways has the hallmarks of a truly great game and we look forward to seeing it hit operator lobbies and for players to enjoy their first Titanways spins and wins.”
