ELA Games is showcasing three titles to the Beyond the Reels studio, spotlighting some of the key choices behind its popular games.
Peter Vonarshenko, Senior Business Development Manager at ELA Games, provided insights to SlotBeats on Buffalo Force, Piñatas Festival and Witches’ Book.
With varying themes and different features spread throughout the three games, ELA Games highlights how it remains versatile and creative with its output to engage players.
Buffalo Force
Players are no stranger to buffalo and western-themed slots, as they’ve been commonplace on casino floors in brick and mortar venues and are now transcending into the online space. However, studios know how to bring new ideas to classic themes, which is what ELA Games has done with Buffalo Force.
Vonarshenko believes that idiosyncratic designs and animation have been delivered to the theme by the studio, as they seek to modernise buffalo games for a new era of players.
“Specifically, it’s the design of the games and the fact that the games are very smoothly animated, very active and alive. Making games feel ‘alive’ as I say is one of the most important parts of our brand identity.”
Part of making a game feel ‘alive’ is creating a real sense of immersion and ELA Games has used sound to create that effect in Buffalo Force. From the studio’s perspective, sound is 50% of the experience alongside visuals, so it makes a concerted effort to create engaging and immersive audio experiences in its games.
Vonarshenko stated: “Attention spans across the board have become very short, so in order to keep a player engaged, you have to engage all of the senses at the same time. Unfortunately, we don’t have smell-o-vision yet as they predicted back in the 60s. But we do try to engage sounds and visuals.”
Coverage of the features and gameplay of Buffalo Force is from 02:52 – 07:40 in the video above.
Piñatas Festival
ELA Games is taking inspiration from Latin American cultural heritage in the second slot of this episode, highlighting Piñatas Festival.
The game seeks to be the life of the festival party with symbols such as piñatas pigs and donkeys, Latin guitarists and dancers.
The theme seems to resonate, too; Vonarshenko outlines that it is one of ELA Games’ top-performing titles.
“The piñatas came from a trend which was explored by a bunch of game providers and which were piñatas themed games, not necessarily slot games but lots of instant games with a piñatas theme as well.
“Our creative team decided to incorporate it into slots and into this game, and very successfully too.”
As you can see in the video, there is a lot going on in Piñatas Festival. Lots of features, lots of symbols. But rather than overwhelming players, the impact has once again been immersion, as players become eager to explore the whole game.
Vonarshenko explains: “The more options you have as a player when you come in and play, the longer you’re going to stay in the game – because you’re going to want to explore every nook and cranny the game has to offer. This has played a pretty big role in the success of this specific title.”
Coverage of the features and gameplay of Piñatas Festival is from 07:41 – 13:57 in the video above.
Witches’ Book
The Halloween-themed Witches’ Book takes inspiration from horror and includes symbols such as crows, skulls and, of course, witches.
Rather than just being a Halloween special, ELA Games has designed the title to be a little more versatile.
Vonarshenko noted: “We decided to go more magical, mystical and whimsical with the vibe route rather than outright spooky or scary. The reason for that was that we wanted this title to be as versatile as possible, and not just be a seasonal game.”
While many providers go for seasonal-only slots, ELA Games aims to provide a little more versatility with its own ostensibly seasonal games. It does this to expand the timeframe that players actually play the game, but also to broaden the game’s appeal.
“Witches are something which are apparently Halloweeny, but at the same time, it depends on how you serve those witches. So you can serve them as a part of Halloween and try to make them spooky. Or you can make them more casual and more fun and more akin to young adult TV shows.”
Coverage of the features and gameplay of Witches’ Book is from 13:58 – 21:13 in the video above.
