Gaming Arts – New Day

Las Vegas-based Gaming Arts has been a creative force in the slot market since 2018, when veteran supply executive Mike Dreitzer arrived to form a Class III slot division in what had been one of the most successful bingo suppliers in the business.

Dreitzer, who had previously served as president, North America for Ainsworth Game Technology, has shown a knack for gathering seasoned executives from the slot supply sector to apply their skills in developing successful casino slots.

That continued this year, as the company brought on Ainsworth and Aristocrat veteran Alejandro Perez as director of product management, and Greg Colella, formerly a longtime executive of Bally Technologies, Scientific Games and Konami, as the company’s new chief product officer.

New talent will help Gaming Arts as it evolves to offer new products to fit today’s marketplace.

“For us, it’s been a year of regrouping and really focusing on making better games,” Dreitzer says. “Part of what Alejandro and Greg represent is the strategic movement of Gaming Arts to produce games to meet the marketplace trends around game play and mechanics. We’re doing a better job of having product management that responds to the needs of the market.”

Gaming Arts is building new strength for these efforts through a strategic partnership with German supplier Merkur Gaming. The Gaming Arts G2E display will be part of Merkur’s booth this year, adding the fruits of its new collaboration with the company to its own group of new offerings.

Over the past few years, Gaming Arts has developed a library of games on the Vert-X Duo dual-screen and Vert-X Grand 49-inch portrait cabinets. At G2E, in addition to showing the first game content developed in concert with Merkur, the company also will unveil its first games designed on Merkur’s MOD EX hardware and platform.

“There are two versions of the MOD EX cabinet,” says Dreitzer, “one being the MOD EX J Curve with a 55-inch curved monitor, and a triple-screen version. This is super exciting for us, because we’ve had a limited library of cabinets. So the big surprise for the show will be those games we’re going to show on the Merkur MOD EX cabinets.”

Playing the Crowd

As far as new game content, Dreitzer says Gaming Arts developers have been listening closely to their customers, and to what their players are seeking in games. “We’re planning and strategically selecting game mechanics and themes based on market trends,” he says. “We’re staying more aligned to the field, and to what we’re hearing back from customers and players.”

Gaming Arts’ G2E display will consist of 37 total games designed for Class III, historical horse racing and Latin American bingo markets. “We have a lot of titles we’re excited about,” says Perez. “One of them is Big Catch Bass Fishing, which is our first collaboration with the Merkur Group in terms of game content.”

The game is based on a collaboration with Merkur’s Blueprint Gaming studio, which specializes in omnichannel game content. The title was released in Europe as an online game. “We’ve taken the popular online game, mechanic and art and ported it into a land-based style,” Dreitzer says.

Big Catch Bass Fishing is a cash-on-reels game. During primary and bonus games, cash-on-reels and jackpot symbols appear, and when the main fisherman character appears, it triggers a “Cash Collect” feature, awarding all cash and potentially multiple jackpots on the screen.

“If you land any cash-on-reel symbol and you land the fisherman, you win all of those values,” Perez says. “And you can also win the jackpots the same way. We added jackpots, and slightly tweaked the game to adapt it to the land-based market. That’s a game I’m really excited about.”

“This is an example of leveraging the relationship with Merkur, because it comes from their online arm, which is based in Europe,” comments Colella. “When I was with Wynn, I did business with the White Hat Studios, which used a lot of their content, too. And those games worked well for me in the States. So we’re going to see if we can reproduce some of that success with Big Catch Bass Fishing.”

Of course, Gaming Arts also will show some of the best new games from its Las Vegas studio. One standout is Puzzle Time, which was previewed at G2E last year, but has been adapted into a two-game family, one deploying a cluster-pay screen, with symbols appearing on a dark background, and the other, “Puzzle Time Reel the Wins,” with a standard four-by-five reel array.

The symbols in this case are puzzle pieces, which pay if they connect. Full puzzles above the array act as three collection pots. “Through the course of the game, you’ll fill up the different puzzles, which trigger one of the features,” explains Colella.

The pots are “Multiplier Time,” which applies a random multiplier to wins, “Big Time,” which sends larger puzzle pieces with larger prizes to the reel array—the larger prizes are easier to connect—and “Jackpot Time,” in which the player lands puzzle pieces with letters in an attempt to spell “MINOR,” “MAJOR” or “GRAND” to win the corresponding jackpot.

The popular three-pot metamorphic feature appears in several of Gaming Arts’ new releases this year. In Wild Temple, pots of gold coins trigger unique features in free games.

“Monkey Bucks” triggers a cash collection feature in which a frame travels across the reels with each spin, and cash-on-reels values inside the frame are awarded immediately. “Temple Riches” triggers a board game-like feature in which the player collects keys to unlock a jackpot wheel for large credit awards. “Free Games” adds expanded wild symbols to the array for a free-spin round.

“This game has the popular collection feature, and the board game bonus is a really fun, entertaining feature,” says Perez. “We’re trying to push the limits a bit with more entertainment-style games, and something new instead of your standard free games or pick-em bonus.”

Another cash-collection style is utilized in Lava Lock. The primary reels contain cash-on-reels, free-spin and jackpot symbols. Metamorphic symbols grow to trigger one or more of the three bonuses. In the main Lava Lock feature, when the Polynesian princess Pele appears on the center reel, all cash values, jackpots and free spins on the screen are awarded instantly.

A free game bonus multiplies the frequency of Pele appearing on the center reel, and a Volcano Feature causes the volcano in the screen’s background to erupt, raining down a random number of cash values to the reels.

“We’re really excited about this game,” Perez says. “We showed a different iteration of it at the IGA trade show, but we’ve reworked it, updated the art and updated some of the mechanics.”

“This is a hot game mechanic right now in the industry,” adds Colella. “It’s got the perceived persistence, metamorphic kind of features, and cash on reels. It’s really a nice, bright, colorful game with a nice central character.”

Another three-pot game is a reworking of a game family previously released, Jungle Rising—with base games Jungle Days and Jungle Nights. The new version has three perceived-persistence pots leading to a hold-and-re-spin bonus.

The Christopher Cruise

In addition to completely new titles, Gaming Arts will offer brand extensions of many of its most popular games. Prominent in the booth will be the company’s second collaboration with top slot influencer Brian Christopher.

The follow-up to last year’s hit Brian Christopher Pop’N Pays will play on the cruises the influencer often stages for his fans and followers in partnership with Carnival Cruise Lines. Brian Christopher’s World Cruise, featured on the Vert-X Grand cabinet, is another three-pot game—in this case, the pots are hip-clad rubber duckies.

One of the pots triggers “Wheel of the World,” featuring multiple spins in which players can win credits, jackpots and other features.

“Dance Till You Drop” triggers a free-game feature with sticky wilds—all wild symbols lock in place for the remainder of the feature. “Stuff Your Face” is a jackpot picking feature in which players can win one of four jackpots.

“It’s a very fun, cute, colorful game.,” says Colella. “You’ve got the perceived persistence with the rubber duckies that will get fatter and fatter through the course of the game, to trigger the various features.”

Another prominent brand extension returns one of Gaming Arts’ biggest hits, Kung Fu Empress. Like the original, Kung Fu Empress Dragon comes from Yamasa Studios, a Japan-based third-party studio. And like the original, it features authentic anime-style animation in the bonus rounds.

The new version has a double-pot feature with cash-on-reels free spins (triggered by the Red Panda pot) and expanding wild reels (the Blue Panda). In the free-spin bonus, symbols transform into wilds and an animated kung fu battle plays out on the screen. Additional free spins are won if the Empress defeats her opponent.

Other games on display at G2E will include two versions of Deal or No Deal, Briefcase Breaker and The Golden Briefcase. Also on the Vert-X Grand, the games feature a pick-and-gamble feature that closely resembles the main contest in the famous game show.

“It’s just like playing the game in the show,” says Colella. “They also did it as a buy-a-bonus feature. You can buy the bonus and go right to the feature.”

Other games building on former success include the Casino Wizard multi-game electronic table game unit. The VIP version of the game, on the Vert-X Grand, features new games including Super Big 6 Wheel, Swap’Em Poker and Pai Gow Poker, added to the original four blackjack, roulette, craps and baccarat games.

“We’re now meeting the market,” says Dreitzer. “With these new game mechanics we’ve created, we’re a lot closer to the market need and market demand than we’ve ever been. And that’s important.”