Iron Dog Studio will ‘never stop innovating as it’s built into our process’ claims the company’s head developer, Fabrizio Motta.
Following on from the company’s launch of its latest Megaways installed – Dwarven Gems Megaways – Motta took time out of his schedule to join SlotBeats in talking about its new title, the inspiration behind the theme and the use of the industry renowned Megaways mechanic.
Starting with the titles themes, one in which is heavy with other variations within the slot market, Motta noted that during the conceptual phase, the Iron Dog team were fixated on wanting to do something ‘a bit different to the norm but equally something that would still appeal’ to its player base.
“We pride ourselves in creating a gameplay experience where the mechanics and visuals work in synergy,” Motta explained. “The market already consisted of a number of popular mining themed Megaways titles, which certainly served as a source of inspiration behind this game, but we wanted to do something a bit more innovative that would help differentiate us from existing releases.
“Throughout the mythology of epic fantasy, dwarves have always been considered the masters at the craft of mining and this served as a good platform for us to build the game around as it linked into the features of the game well.
“Once the initial idea was formalised, we went through multiple iterations of the design phase before ending up with the final product.”
Dwarven Gems Megaways is a vibrant, yet busy, slot title visually and comes with various features which impact the outcome for the players. We asked Motta to guide us through each mode.
“Firstly there’s the Dynamite – The Dwarven Bombs act as sticky wilds. When these don’t trigger a win they will make a huge explosion across multiple reels which is guaranteed to cause a tumble event. These bombs will only appear on the sub reel on your initial spin or tumble in.
“The next one to mention is Power Gem: With every Power Gem you pluck from the depths of the earth two to four wilds will be added to the reels. In addition to that, each Power Gem scavenged will award you two more free spins in the feature.
“Possibly the most exciting one is Lucky Last Spin: Once the free spins have been granted the fun starts, but even when things are almost done there’s still more fun to have. If you win on the final one, you will be gifted another, and so on and so on.
“An unlucky player can get a reprieve if their bonus hasn’t been lucrative – improving the overall experience. Also players who are doing well get the chance to build those wins to an even greater extent.”
Since its conception, the Megaways mechanic has seemed to have integrated itself into pretty much every slot supplier’s portfolio, cementing its legacy within the sector. We pressed Motta onto the advantages of having this mechanic within its titles and how it enhances the player’s experience.
On the inclusion of the mechanic, the head of Iron Dog Studios stated it made the company “think more deeply” into incorporating features into the mechanic in order to “stand out from the dozen released every month”.
“As we all know, one of the big buzz words throughout the slot sector is gamification and we’ve clearly embraced this within Dwarven Gems Megaways within the various features have been included.
“When we design a game we don’t just assign the game features from a list but we try to come up with features that sit well on top of the story, truly great games combine the maths, mechanics, themes and front end seamlessly.
“In Dwarven Gems Megaways everything revolves around the Dwarfs digging, even features like Lucky Last Spin, which would be a great innovation in any slot, have been tilted towards the theme with the rumble on the slot and the pickaxe trigger.”
Moving forward, Motta emphasised that Iron Dog Studio will “never stop innovating” as it is “built into our process.”
“We believe we do a great job with gamifying Megaways titles but now it’s about transitioning that to our other titles like Hold and Win and Cluster Pay (and some other projects we can’t yet talk about),” added Motta.
“As for what to expect, look out for the different types of games we mentioned above but also Santa’s Big Bash Megaways which I believe will be the most successful Christmas release in the sector this year. We’ve iterated on the Megaways Jack mechanic with this one and I think it’s quite well known how strongly that game performs.
“The fun never stops with Iron Dog Studios and Dwarven Gems is our first full release on the GECKO framework. This gives us more flexibility to let our imaginations run wild and produce more and better content. Keep a close eye on what we’re producing in Q4 and 2022 – it’s our best content ever.”
