Bluberi – Growth Spurt

Andrew Burke has been cutting a lot of ribbons lately. And unlocking a lot of locks.

Ever since Burke took over as CEO of Bluberi Gaming in early 2020—aside from that year’s Covid shutdowns—things have been moving at a rapid pace for the supplier.

The company has grown from what had been a 25-year-old Canadian Class II supplier into one of the bright stars among emerging North American slot suppliers. Early in 2023, the company won its first Eilers & Krejcik Gaming Slot Awards for its hit Devil’s Lock game, and since then, the company has been on a quest to broaden its capabilities as a slot manufacturer.

Much of that has been physical expansion, culminating with all those ribbon-cutting ceremonies—which, of late, have been transformed into “unlocking” ceremonies, locks and chains replacing the ribbons in honor of its landmark Devil’s Lock game.

Over the past two years, the company has christened new game design studios in Moncton, New Brunswick and Austin, Texas, bringing its total number of game design studios to five, plus a third-party studio creating games exclusively for Bluberi. Just two years ago, the company expanded what was only its second studio, in its historic home of Drummondville, Quebec, where its original “center of excellence” still operates and is growing rapidly itself. In 2022, the company opened its Reno studio, complementing the exclusive third-party studio there, Luciano Design.

Luciano Design is headed by Cyrus Luciano, son of Bob Luciano, the legendary designer and inventor who founded Sierra Design Group in Reno after a long career at IGT and has more than 300 patents to his name. The younger Luciano, a veteran of Bally Technologies, Acres Gaming and IGT who formed Luciano Design in 2023, had worked with Bluberi Chief Product Officer Mike Brennan while Brennan was an executive at IGT.

Burke comments that Luciano now makes land-based games exclusively for Bluberi. “We’ve opened a studio every year that I’ve been here, and we’re continuing that trend,” he says. “We’re really excited to be able to showcase these investments, and it’s exciting to see it all come to fruition.”

Brennan says having six different studios provides diversity in game style, as they all work together toward a common goal. He likens the process to a symphony orchestra.

“Everybody’s playing different instruments, but as a company, we have the same sheet music,” Brennan says, “and everybody interprets it through different ways of playing the Bluberi notes. That way, we can grow our output without turning a little studio into an 80-person assembly line. We want to grow each of these to maybe 20 or 30 people, and then they can make something like six high-focus quality games a year.

“What each studio will not be is a factory. We don’t make normal core games here; we try to put a little more love into the process and into every game. So, each one of these studios can be artisanal. They can be creative and focused, and help us increase our output without losing that human touch and affinity.”

The choice of studio locations is meant to tap into the inherent local talent of each location—the location of the Austin studio, for instance, allows Bluberi to tap into the tech talent coming out of the University of Texas. “We’re not going to just go find a city and say we’re going to build a studio there, though if there’s anyone qualified in Encinitas or Solana Beach, drop us a line! We’re going to go where the talent is, and where we can find the leader. In each city, Moncton, Reno, and Austin, we found a perfect fit of an awesome emerging leader in the industry.

“When you start a studio, you are maintenance person, head recruiter and executive coach. Starting a studio is hard, especially going from zero to 20 or 30 people. We’ve done it three times, and I’m so impressed by our leaders and team members there. And, we’ve recently kicked off recruiting for the next one—we’re going to do it again.”

But the growth spurt didn’t end with studios. In May, Bluberi “unlocked” its newly constructed 84,881-square-foot corporate headquarters in Las Vegas, followed by a new Canadian headquarters facility in the heart of downtown Drummondville.

Burke says the new facilities make it easier for the Bluberi team members to perform at their maximum capability. “In Las Vegas, our team had worked in a very small, confined space,” he says. “We were just pouring out that location, and we’re really pleased to have some new digs. It’s

really motivated the team. Everybody comes in every day excited about what we’re doing, and the collaboration is great.”

In Drummondville, the headquarters had been in the same building for 30 years, on the outskirts of town. “This new building is right in the downtown area, where people can walk to lunch,” says Burke. “It’s just great that the team that’s been around 30 years gets a brand-new facility in the heart of the city, where a lot of them grew up. It’s pretty special.”

Drummondville is the epicenter of the company’s recent success, creating technology solutions from an emerging GDK platform, a robust Class II system, new cabinets and hardware, for high-hit-rate games. “Our core team in Quebec has poured their heart into Bluberi for years, and to witness a decades-in-the-making christening of a downtown new office was an extremely proud moment for all of us,” says Brennan.

Beefed up with talent and motivated with the new physical plants, Bluberi’s team comes to the Global Gaming Expo with a group of games that represents a combination of innovation that goes way beyond simply trying to come up with the next mega-hit after Devil’s Lock—even though there will, in fact, be another sequel to that game highlighted.

“More content sources means more shots at another Devil’s Lock,” says Brennan, “because we believe in our people, we believe in our process, and it’s all going to be evident at the show. The way we’re presenting product at G2E with a customer focus is the first time it’s ever been done. Our tagline for G2E is ‘This show is for you.’ Everything we do in our game development is for our (customers and) players.”

Beacon of Innovation

It will all start with a new cabinet—a for-sale follow-up to the Beacon Elite, released earlier this year. According to Brennan, Bluberi has been working on this cabinet family for nearly four years, designing the form factor “to meet the evolving needs of casino operators.”

Developed through more than 400 hours of research and input from hardware experts, the Beacon+ combines functionality with thoughtful design to enhance both player experience and operational efficiency.

The Beacon+ features 360 degrees of floor-to-candle accent lighting, including an innovative back-lighting option for what the company calls “Beacon Tunnel banking.” This design element aims to improve the visual appeal of the gaming environment and support efficient use of casino floor space.

The Beacon+ is equipped with a 49-inch ultra-HD monitor offering 600 nits brightness, framed by a narrow bezel to maximize screen real estate. The cabinet also integrates an on-board progressive controller within the main board, and additional features include a maintenance-friendly button deck with gel-capped BQN dual bash buttons, designed for durability and ease of use.

Brennan says content for the new cabinet will be backward-compatible, meaning the new games can be placed on the company’s b-49 portrait cabinet and other legacy form factors.

Game Diversity

As far as the games to be presented at G2E, Bluberi will combine recent successes such as Devil’s Lock All-In, last year’s follow-up to Devil’s Lock, and Honey Bomb, a game releasing this quarter, with the best innovations now emerging from the company’s growing collection of studios.

“We’re going to have 12 brand new ‘Core+’ games at G2E, and these are going to represent five different content sources,” says Brennan. “I think that’s an important studio message. For us, it’s huge because we went from two fantastic sources in Quebec to now six sources.” (He says the first games from the new Austin studio will be launched next year.)

He adds that the games will show off the diversity of those content sources. “When most companies talk about game quantities, there would be minimal math models and a bunch of art variants of the same math model,” Brennan says.

“These Core+ themes have truly unique math models—so many different game types to choose from. What we’ve been investing in and waiting on is this menu of options for our players and our operators, with many different experiences and outcomes. I like the diversity of our mechanics. The variety of our lineup increases our chances that some have a chance to shake the industry up a bit.”

Take the game Timber Jack Going Wilder, just released. It is a three-pot game with two free-game bonus features. The “Beaver Pot Fillers” are activated by wild symbols with coins attached. This triggers full-reel stacks of wild symbols called “When Will it End?” This feature keeps stacking credit awards and any of the lower jackpot amounts on top of the wild stack, accumulating pays.

The game includes unique enhancements like “Overtime Free Spins,” with all awards boosted by 1.5X (like time-and-a-half overtime).

And then you have “ghost reels,” phantom reels spinning above the reel array anticipating bonus triggers that will appear on the main reels. They can even trigger outside of the main reels. It’s another unique addition to add excitement to the game.

Another Bluberi game previewed last year and just released is Honey Bomb. The unique aspect of this game is the hold-and-re-spin feature. Instead of traditional reels, it takes place on a giant honeycomb, the individual spots on the comb locking the cash-on-reels symbols.

The hold-and-spin “comb” offers credit prizes and bombs that can explode to reveal jackpots. During the final spin, known as “Bomb Time,” all cash balls are upgraded to jackpots, and if players achieve a blackout, all wins are doubled with a 2X multiplier.

Each reel functions as an independent pot filler, giving players five distinct chances to enter the Honey Link Bonus.

These will be joined at Bluberi’s G2E booth by other unique games, such as Raging Red, the first game from the Moncton studio. It features a center-reel character similar to Devil’s Lock, which triggers an instant award of all cash-on-reels symbols on the reel array.

“Here, we’re bringing that Devil’s Lock DNA forward and putting it into a new package,” comments Brett Vela, Bluberi’s director of product management. “Where Raging Red distinguishes itself is in the game play itself. Instead of that focus on filling your pots, you now have simple triggers on reels one and five that fill the pots for you.”

Creative Characters, Mechanics

Other games Bluberi brings to G2E feature clever themes and characters worked into innovative game mechanics that build on popular features to create totally new experiences.

Atomic Duck is such a game. It is a clever take on the early Atomic Age, with a funny duck character who, like Robert Oppenheimer, splits the atom—atom symbols will split to create double or triple credit awards.

The goal of the game is to collect the atoms to move up a jackpot ladder in the top box. A “catalyst” symbol on the fifth reel moves the player up to the next rung on the jackpot ladder during free games. When free games are triggered, there is a unique gamble feature—the triggered award is 10 free games, but the player can gamble with a true-odds pick to get 15 free games or five free games.

Elsewhere, Berry Bucks is another three-pot game with pots triggering three individual bonuses. Another game, Dancing Pots, fills in spaces between cash-on-reels symbols to help trigger a hold-and-spin feature.

Jackpot Shot is a new theme that uses “mini reels” during the hold-andspin bonus. They are miniature reel sets that spin to a what-you-see-is-what-you-get value for the cash-on-reels symbol (for instance, 1-2-0 would equate to $120 if betting $1).

“I believe it’s the diversity of our mechanics, with industry-leading art and presentation, that will create a really exciting portfolio,” says Brennan. “We’ll have what we’re calling a dynamic dozen games at G2E, and even though that doesn’t sound like a ton and we don’t have 70 games like some, each of those 12 games has a cool story and its own path to high potential. And we’re finding a way to tell that story to our customers at the show.”

Also at the show, Bluberi will reprise its unique demonstrations to show attendees how its games are designed. “We just love talking about that,” Brennan says. “We have ‘10 Design Commandments’ that we’re going to show our customers.”

“We take G2E very seriously,” says Burke. “It’s a huge seminal event every year for our company, and we invest in it that way.

“I think we’re going to really shock some people with just the way we present things at the show, the way we show what we’re doing. I’m excited to get in front of all of our customers and tell them our story.”