Designing casino games is not unlike playing casino games. More often than not, you win nothing or a few bucks, but when you hit it big, the feeling is like no other.
Evolution Chief Product Officer Todd Haushalter and his team have experienced plenty of failed attempts, hiccups, and iterations, but they view them as part of the process of striking gold.
Such is the case with Lightning Roulette. Capturing, well, lightning in a bottle was not an overnight feat and the group was well aware of how many iterations of roulette had tried and failed in the past.
“The product graveyard is filled with Roulette modifications and Roulette variations that didn’t work. People just didn’t want an additional bet on the table or something like that,” Haushalter recalled.
With that in mind, the Evolution team started to think about innovating the game in a different way. Rather than augment Roulette with new bets or a new riff on Roulette, what if they were to try to bring some of the appeal of another vertical to the table?
That’s when Evolution hit on the concept of bringing the experience of a slots game to Roulette. But perhaps just as important as the mechanic itself was what to call it and how it would be displayed.
As Haushalter explained, getting the lightning concept right was something that took many drafts and covered everything from appearance to payouts to sound.
Starting with the mechanic, the team needed to think about how often and how much customers would trigger lightning.
“You can give lots of lightning strikes, but then they’re not going to have much power. You can have one, and it can have a lot of power, but then if you make it too volatile, people will lose their money too quickly, and then they’re not going to like it. And so you agonize over what’s the right balance.”
Once they determined that balance, designing a game where it aesthetically makes sense that lightning would strike all over the Roulette wheel and it would not feel so out of place.
One idea was a laboratory feel, like where Nicola Tesla might work. That proved to be a bit too cartoonish for a Roulette game, so they revised to a more subdued art deco vibe.
“We iterated and iterated and iterated until we found the thing that was respectful enough and pure enough, and not too childish or playful; not a slot machine. And we landed on the lightning. So that’s kind of the iterative process. You’re starting wide and gradually narrow your ideas” said Haushalter.
Moreover, it is one thing to have an idea and it is another to bring that idea to fruition.
“There’s a lot of brainstorming in a room, but you can only go so far. You’ve got mock-ups, you’ve got mathematical simulations,” he added. “But it’s very different to have a mathematical simulation and then to actually see it and the way the lightning strikes right next to your number.”
All of the efforts have paid off though, as Lightning Roulette has become a smash hit for the studio.
And, now that they have a proven concept, Evolution does not need to go back to the drawing board to roll out new games and new variants.
In one of its recent games, Red Door Roulette, Evolution has combined two of its hits for a new gaming experience, described by Evolution as a mash-up of Lightning Roulette and game show Crazy Time’s most exciting bonus game.
Haushalter observed that these game show-style games are one of the most popular and successful conversion tools for slots players to bring them over to table games.
It is also an important bridge to create for new generations of casino players that crave different experiences beyond traditional slots and table games.
“It’s a perfectly sensible thesis that this next generation is going to expect more than spinning reels, but there is still something magical about spinning reels, and there’s still something very special about Blackjack, Roulette and Baccarat. But how do you create variations on those games for that generation? They want faster, they want a bit more action. They want to win bigger.”
Thinking ahead, Haushalter thinks games need to cater to shrinking attention spans. So, Evolution is creating options within the portfolio for people seeking instant gratification with a higher volatility.
“We’re thinking a lot about the TikTok generation of players,” he noted. “We’re thinking about what would a speed game show look like? And we did some interesting things. We did a game called Stock Market, which is now live in America, and has a 10-second game round. By Evolution standards, where the average round length is roughly 51 seconds, 10 seconds is blazing fast, and it’s a super simple game you just bet on the direction of a virtual stock market.”
It’s too early to tell if Stock Market will once again capture lightning in a bottle, but it does underline how much Evolution is looking to capitalize on old favorites and established hits but always seeking out the next big thing.
