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Competitive Research and Data Insights for Slots Designers
SLOTS DESIGN REPORT
TABLE OF CONTENTS
JANUARY
2021
HEADLINE MACHINES 3
Club Social Bonus Masquerade Ball in Huuuge Casino Product Insights
Unlockable Playlist Workshop Boyz in House of Fun
SLOTS TRENDS 9
Social Bonus Investment Social Bonuses by App Bonus Investment by Type
MARKET WATCH 13
Notable Releases
APPENDIX 16
Liquid & Grit Slots Personas Premium Partnerships
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HEADLINE MACHINES
Machines with unique features or fresh combinations of mechanics
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CASINO > CONTENT > SOCIAL
Club Social Bonus Masquerade Ball in Huuuge Casino
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Feature Details • Envelopes appear on reels 1, 3, and 5. • Landing two envelopes triggers a choice between them. • One envelope awards a coin prize and the other triggers a mask pick'em bonus (1).
• Landing three envelopes also triggers the mask pick'em bonus. • Players pick three masks to reveal coin rewards or a gold mask (2). • Picking the gold mask triggers a second bonus stage (3 and 4). • In the second stage, players pick one mask to reveal a multiplier or envelope (5). • Picking the envelope invites all club members to play the mask pick'em.
• Club members claim gifted bonuses from the club menu or within the machine (6, 7, and video). • Turning down the bonus saves it for later. • Players can trigger gifted bonuses at any time.
• Players who aren't in clubs don't get any club functionality but are shown the same dialogues (video). Additional Information • See more images and videos in the Masquerade Ball library.
MECHANIC TEARDOWN
A pick'em bonus includes a chance to invite all club members to play the bonus.
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2 3
4 5
6 7
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Integrate bonuses with meta-features to add meaning to both. According to Sensor Tower, casino saw the fewest worldwide downloads and smallest download growth—just +2.4% YoY—of any mobile genre during 2020.1 With that in mind, apps likely need to begin expanding their audiences beyond core slots players. One potential path toward wider appeal is to create greater alignment between machine design and app meta-features. Typically, this relationship is one-way: Slots play impacts meta-features, but meta-features don't impact slots play.
Masquerade Ball takes a unique step by integrating Huuuge Casino's club feature directly into the pick'em bonus (1). By extending the bonus' consequences into the club feature and vice versa, Masquerade Ball enhances the significance of both to create a more meaningful experience.2
Show non-club players that they're missing out—and give them the tools to join in.Masquerade Ball tells all players that their bonus invites were sent to their club, even if they don't belong to one (2). Not only is this confusing, but it also misses a chance to promote clubs to non-members. In fact, some players weren't aware of the club bonus at all! We interviewed two paying players who said they would have joined a club or increased their club engagement if they'd known about it.3
FOMO (fear of missing out) is an especially powerful motivator in social contexts,4 so we recommend notifying players about the club feature when they enter the machine and again when they could have sent a bonus to club members. Then, provide an easy option to join a club.
Identify club members' bonus invitations.Clubs aren't just about rewards—players are also driven to build relationships and distinguish themselves among their peers. Identifying players' club contributions drives participation by publicly acknowledging their achievements.5
Unfortunately, the bonus invites in Masquerade Ball are completely anonymous. This could be improved by simply identifying the sender in the invite or on the club wall, which would also enhance the immersion of the machine's theme. Allowing clubs to see how many invites each player has sent would create extra social pressure and drive engagement from competitive players.
PRODUCT INSIGHTS
1 Sensor Tower - Downloads by Game Category 2 Subject A; Age 27 male, $400/month spend, 35 hours/week playtime: "It's great to ... bring my friends to the masquerade ball. It's a very collaborative thing."
3 Subject B; Age 47 male, $150–$200/month spend, 10 hours/week playtime Subject C; Age 49 male, $20/month spend, 5 hours/week playtime
4 The Social Media Party, p. 4 5 Social Loafing: A Field Investigation
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We interviewed four Huuuge Casino players who spend $10–$400 per month.
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CASINO > CONTENT > SOCIAL
Unlockable Playlist Workshop Boyz in House of Fun
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Feature Details • Spins randomly trigger a dance-off for added symbols, wilds, multipliers, or coin prizes (1). • Landing 3–5 record symbols triggers 10–20 free spins (2). • Free spin bonuses randomly unlock holiday songs for the soundtrack, up to five total (3). • Players can change the current song with a button over the reels or from a playlist (4 and video).
Additional Information • See more images and videos in the Workshop Boyz library.
MECHANIC TEARDOWN
Players trigger bonuses to unlock five holiday songs for the machine's soundtrack.
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Give players a compelling reason to keep the sound on. One study of slot machines found that the presence of sound increased arousal, perceived win rates, and machine preference.1 Workshop Boyz uses the theme of a band to give meaning to the machine's soundtrack and make players want to hear the music.
1 The Impact of Sound in Modern Multiline Video Slot Machine Play
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Tracked slots apps: Big Fish Casino, Caesars Slots, Cash Frenzy, Cashman Casino, DoubleDown, DoubleU Casino, Game of Thrones Slots, Gold Fish Casino, Heart of Vegas, Hit It Rich!, House of Fun, Huuuge Casino, Jackpot Magic Slots, Jackpot Party, Lightning Link Casino, Lotsa Slots, my KONAMI, myVEGAS, POP! Slots, Quick Hit Slots, Scatter Slots, Slotomania, and Wizard of Oz: Casino Slots
SLOTS TRENDSThe latest developments in top-grossing apps
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SOCIAL BONUSES GROW
Social bonus releases nearly doubled in 2020 and made up 5% of all bonus features versus 3% in 2019.
Social Bonus Investment
Num
ber o
f Rel
ease
s
1
2
3
4
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
2020 2019
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FEW APPS RELEASE MOST SOCIAL BONUSES
Social Bonuses by App (Past 12 Months)
POP! Slots
Big Fish Casino
Jackpot Magic Slots
Game of Thrones Slots
Slotomania
Cash Frenzy
Cashman Casino
Huuuge Casino
myVEGAS
Scatter Slots
Number of Releases
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
POP! Slots, Big Fish Casino, and Jackpot Magic Slots made up 64% of all social bonus releases in the past year. Still, this is a decrease from the 77% we saw in the October 2020 Slots Design Report.
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SOCIAL BONUSES NEAR BOTTOM OF BONUS TYPES
Social bonuses were the fourth least frequently released bonus type in 2020 despite almost doubling since 2019.
Bonus Investment by Type (Past 12 Months)
Num
ber o
f Rel
ease
s
20
40
60
80
100
Wild
s
Mul
tiplie
rs
Extra
Ree
ls/Li
nes/
Pays
Pick
'em
Play
er C
hoic
e
Mul
tiple
Bon
uses
Pick
'em
w/ F
ree
Spin
s
Col
lect
ion
Oth
er
Soci
al
Min
i-Gam
e
Min
i-Ste
pper
Dea
l or N
o D
eal
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MARKET WATCHNew and notable machine releases
App Machine Description
Caesars SlotsAbominable Christmas &
Tiki Christmas
• Free spin and respin bonuses fill progress bars in each machine. • Every 30th bonus becomes a super free spin or super respin bonus (Abominable Christmas only). • Super bonuses add multipliers, extra spins, or high-value symbols.
• Triggering at least one super bonus in each machine unlocks a Deal or No Deal bonus for a bet multiplier (1).
Cash Frenzy Candy Clash
• During base and free spins, symbols randomly convert to multipliers. • Three or more star symbols trigger up to 20 free spins. • Hearts collected from reels can be exchanged for mystery prizes in a shop (2). • A random mini-stepper spin awards pulls from a gacha machine for coin prizes or jackpots (video).
DoubleDown Winter Wonder Train
• Three or more train symbols trigger up to 15 sticky respins. • Initial respins contain coin prizes and minor jackpots. • Ticket symbols add two respins and activate up to two additional respin tiers (3 and video). • New tiers award and clear all prize symbols and add bigger jackpots to the reels. • Respins can randomly start from the highest tier.
DoubleU Casino Ace Wings
• Four or more scatter symbols trigger respins on four reel sets. • At the start of respins, players designate one reel set as lucky. • Prizes from each reel set accumulate in pots beside the reels (4). • Players win the pot from their lucky reel set (video). • If the lucky reel set collects the most bird symbols, players win the pots from all four reel sets.
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NOTABLE RELEASES I 1
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3
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App Machine Description
DoubleU Casino
Wicked Monster Lab
• Five or more matching monster symbols respin during base and free spins (video). • During respins, wins advance a jackpot ladder and winning symbols respin (1). • When a spin does not result in a win, respins end and players win the current jackpot.
• Three scatter symbols trigger seven free spins. • Wilds containing prizes appear on reels 4 and 5.
Lotsa Slots Christmas Clovers
• Clouds randomly appear on the reels and move up one position each spin (2 and video). • Landing a gold pot symbol under a cloud awards the cloud's prize.
• Three or more leprechaun symbols trigger up to 25 free spins. • Free spin bonuses fill a meter for a super free spin bonus.
• Wins add coins to a pooled jackpot for all players in the room. • In-machine challenges award medals. • Three or more gift symbols trigger a pick'em bonus from a screen of falling gifts.
myVEGAS King & Kraken
• Gold and silver wanted posters add players' portraits to corresponding team boards. • The gold board has 20 player spots and the silver has 15.
• Filling the last spot on a board triggers a social bonus battle for all players on the board (video). • During the bonus battle, wheel spins result in one of four actions: attack the enemy, remove a life
from random players, add a life to all players, or increase a multiplier (3). • Defeating the enemy splits the multiplier between all surviving players and triggers the next round. • The bonus ends when all three enemies or all players have been defeated.
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NOTABLE RELEASES II1
Quickly review all features and machines
Filter the Library Tool by month and year to see all new releases.
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APPENDIX
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LIQUID & GRIT SLOTS PERSONAS
Participants from the U.K. and U.S. (N=1,299) were surveyed about their mobile gaming use. The data produced five personas with distinct slots preferences and playing habits.
Demographics
Fame Frank Money Mike Daydreamer Denise Gambler Gail Sensation Serena
Size 21% 22% 27% 19% 11%
% Female 50% 51% 66% 60% 55%
Age 32 mean / 30 median 34 mean / 32 median 35 mean / 34 median 35 mean / 33 median 35 mean / 32 median
Education 3.5 3.3 3.5 3.2 3.3
Money Spent 4.2 4.9 3.5 5.4 5.8
Playtime 5.0 4.5 5.0 4.9 6.5
* The education, money spent, and playtime numbers represent the relative value of each category compared to other player personas.
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Liquid & Grit partners with these premier market research and analytics companies to infuse our reports with the most relevant and detailed gaming user personas, data, and statistics available.
PREMIUM PARTNERSHIPS
Quadrant Strategies Kinrate Analytics Sensor Tower
Market Research
Quadrant Strategies
Player Personas
Kinrate Analytics
Mobile App Store Intelligence
Sensor Tower
Quadrant Strategies is a market research consultancy that uses research to help the world's most prominent technology, gaming, and entertainment companies develop strategies for building their user base, increasing user engagement and spend, and strengthening their marketing and brand plans.
We do that using a range of quantitative and qualitative methodologies, including gamer segmentation and persona development, feature testing, message creation, and loyalty and engagement modeling. The work of our senior leadership goes back many years, and includes long-term engagements for console and gaming-PC hardware-makers, individual games in a range of genres, and across consoles, PCs, and mobile, and for some of the top game franchises.
Kinrate Analytics offers game developers, consultants, publishers, and cloud gaming operators the best cross-platform game recommendation engine for targeted marketing, as well as a novel profiling-as-a-service solution for intelligent market segmentation and social networking.
Other services include advanced market prediction analyses for identifying emergent gaming trends and access to unique AI-enhanced data of 140 thousand game titles and 48 million game players.
The products of Kinrate Analytics have been developed in university-led research projects in collaboration with economists, psychologists, game scholars, and data scientists.
Sensor Tower is relied upon by financial analysts, VCs, and publishers who need to leverage data to identify the fastest-growing apps, emerging markets, and more.
Clients harness Sensor Tower's suite of app intelligence tools to:
‣ Evaluate app economies and app vitality.
‣ Drive organic growth with the leading App Store Optimization platform.
‣ Get the best global download and revenue estimates for the App Store and Google Play.
‣ Discover top creatives and better shape user acquisition strategy.
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