Gaming Arts – The Next Era
The changes continued this year for Las Vegas-based Gaming Arts, a successful bingo and keno supplier that entered the casino slot market seven years ago. Mike Dreitzer, the industry veteran who had been brought in by company owner David Colvin to create a Class III slot division for the company and steered its progress in the market as the company’s CEO, left in June to become chairman of the Nevada Gaming Control Board.
He was replaced as CEO by another gaming veteran, Robert Ziems, an attorney and MBA who previously served as president of Aruze Gaming America and chief business and legal officer of AGS. Meanwhile, former COO Jean Venneman returned to her original company, IGT, as head of studios.
But last year, additions to the executive team set the company up for its next era. Greg Colella, formerly a longtime executive of Bally Technologies, Scientific Games and Konami, became the company’s new chief product officer.
Meanwhile, Germany’s Merkur Group, which has been a technology partner of Gaming Arts the past two years, is in the process of acquiring the company, which gives Gaming Arts access to the resources of a multinational supplier for manufacturing moving forward. Merkur Gaming US, the German company’s U.S. subsidiary, was granted a Nevada license in May, and the deal is expected to close before the Global Gaming Expo.
Leading up to new ownership, Gaming Arts has been busy revamping its product lineup and introducing new content on Mod Ex, the cabinet series based on Merkur’s design. Last year, the company introduced games on the Mod Ex J55, with a 55-inch J-curved monitor; the triple-screen Mod Ex 332; and the dual-screen Mod Ex 227.
At G2E, Gaming Arts will feature an array of game styles on the Mod Ex cabinets, as the company transitions away from the legacy Vert-X portrait cabinet. Once again, the company will share a booth with Merkur Group.
Playing Favorites
This year, Gaming Arts will build upon what have been its most successful titles with an array of new games utilizing the most popular game mechanics.
“We actually have some momentum behind us,” says Colella. “We have four products in which we see consistent performance. Casino Wizard (the multi-game machine housing electronic table games) has probably been the biggest staple Gaming Arts has out there, and the Brian Christopher’s World Cruise game is getting good play; you see it on (the Eilers-Fantini slot performance report) pretty consistently. Our Wild Temple games and Lava Lock have performed well.
“We’ve received some of the first approvals for the Mod Ex cabinet, so that is in the market. You’re seeing the Mod Ex in California and Florida properties, and they’re starting to pop up in more and more locations. We’re in the final stages of the approval process in Nevada.”
Colella says G2E will see the “full unveiling” of the Mod Ex series of cabinets. “Most customers are still getting to know Gaming Arts, and they’re really going to do that with the Mod Ex,” he says. “We have three modular configurations. The cabinets are all the same from the monitor’s base down; we just add the appropriate monitor configuration.”
The company’s G2E display will reflect the R&D progress Colella’s team has made. Where last year’s show yielded only a handful of new titles, there will be 14 new games displayed at this year’s show. “We will show a lot of flexibility in some of those titles; they have the ability to go into multiple cabinets depending on what type of configuration the customer wants.”
Among the standouts to be presented on those cabinets is San Din Fu, one of Gaming Arts’ first true three-pot games. With base games Dragon and Phoenix, the game features three ornate Asian pots into which different-colored coins fly from the reels until one or more burst to trigger an enhanced free-spin round.
The pot enhancements are “Multiplier,” “Extra Wilds” and “Ultra Reels.” The Multiplier enhancement applies a different multiplier to every free spin, so all wins are enhanced. Extra Wilds is just that—wild symbols are added to every free spin. Ultra Reels removes all lower-paying royal symbols from the reels for the free-spin round. The goal, of course, is to land all three enhancements at once.
The free spins begin with 10, but the player can win additional free games to extend the feature. There are two progressive jackpots and two static prizes that scale with the denomination.
A similar jackpot and free-spin configuration is deployed in Bankin’ More Bacon, developed in partnership with Blueprint Gaming studios. Gaming Arts’ first foray into the piggy-bank theme is what Colella calls a “hard-core cash-on-reels game.” The cash-on-reels symbols are represented as bank checks, and they add up in both the primary game and free games.
In the free spins, when a pig lands on the first or last reel, it can boost the value of the checks, and collects the credits instantly. There is also a hold-and-spin bonus that continues as long as checks land on the reels. Three Collects unlock added free spins and an upgraded multiplier.
Another game developed with Blueprint is Kong Even Bigger Bananas, which deploys the same game math as Bankin’ More Bacon in a King Kong-style jungle theme. According to Colella, both games, as well as others developed in partnership with iGaming’s White Hat Studios, will be omnichannel releases. The company also is partnering with Evolution Gaming’s NetEnt division.
One of Gaming Arts’ G2E games will reflect these iGaming partnerships. NetEnt’s Divine Fortune, a hit online for years, will be shown in a land-based version. It features cascading wild re-spins, a hold-and-spin bonus, and a Jackpot Bonus in which filling three horizontal rows with cash-on-reels symbols awards that jackpot.
Another NetEnt game adapted for land by Gaming Arts is Starburst, a popular title featuring wild symbols and pays left to right and right to left.
According to Colella, a highlight of Gaming Arts’ G2E display will be Glory of Giza. Created by Gaming Arts developers, it features enhanced 3D animations of Rana, the goddess, moving across the screen in a horse-drawn chariot, and custom audio created by sound designer Willie Wilcox, the drummer of the band Utopia who was Bally’s senior audio director for 10 years. (He did the audio for the Michael Jackson slot.)
Wilcox designed a seamless mix of sounds, with distinct sounds for pyramid symbols, wilds, cash-on-reels and other symbols.
“The graphics and sound of this game will have people saying, ‘Who made this game?’ and they won’t believe the answer is Gaming Arts,” Colella says.
The game features a rich mix of bonus elements, including free spins, a hold-and-spin round, stacked wilds in the base game, and a “Bonus Guarantee” that is awarded if the player does not win anything in the free spin bonus.
During the hold-and-spin feature, a “prize tower” sits above the reels with a guaranteed prize for reaching thresholds in the number of cash-on-reels symbols (they are orbs in this game) collected. The progressives are on the prize tower, with the Grand on top.
Also at G2E, Gaming Arts will unveil Eternal Riches, a new Lava Lock game, and a new version of Casino Wizard, with casino-style elements like Insurance and enhanced splitting options added to the blackjack game, a “racetrack” view on the roulette game, and quality improvements to the rest of the games.
“I feel like we have some wind in our sails; we’re not fighting uphill anymore,” says Colella. “We had been assessing how to move forward, and now a lot of those pieces are in place. We’re in the beginning phases of establishing a new studio, our performance is appearing on the Eilers reports, and we’re taking more substantial orders than we ever envisioned for Gaming Arts.
“Each day, there’s a new ray of sunshine.”
