When you look at a slot machine, it may strike you as simple. After all, it has a tried-and-tested format, all you need to do is apply a theme and launch it. Nothing could be further from the truth, though. Building casino games, even if it seems an easy task, involves many steps that make it more complex than meets the eye.
Artistic Conceptualization and Design
First and foremost, you need to give your game a unique look and feel. After all, you can’t launch a game that looks like… every other game on the market. You need to develop a unique visual and thematic concept for your game and design every symbol, every character, and every asset you’ll use in the game. All these have to align with the theme you choose for the game.
Creating Soundscapes
The soundtrack is as much a part of good and captivating casino games as the visual part. So, this needs careful planning as well. Many game studios slap generic background music on their games, along with a few casino sound effects, and they consider it done. The best ones, in turn, go to great lengths to create a captivating soundscape for their games – and it shows.
The background music of your game has to be not just a good fit for your chosen theme but be relaxing and subtle enough not to disrupt the players’ experience.
Putting Them Together
One of the most important steps in the creation of a casino game is integrating the visuals with the sounds. You need to make sure not only that the right sounds are played at the right moment but also that the sounds are in harmony with the visuals and the action on the screen.
Cross-Platform Optimization
Once you have the visual and audio, you need to make sure they will work together seamlessly. Next, you need to make sure they do so on different platforms and screen sizes.
People play casino games on pretty much every device you can imagine, from smartphones (and some, no doubt, on smartwatches) to big-screen TVs. You’ll need to make sure the visuals look crisp on any display.
At the same time, you’ll need to design your game with cross-platform accessibility. You’ll want the user interface to adapt to the screen size it is displayed on and the input options available.
Promotional Materials
Many people don’t think about this part of the game design process but it is vital in the world of casino games: promotional materials. This includes everything from wallpapers, background images, and other assets reviewers and promoters can use in advertising campaigns once the game is launched.
As you can see, creating a slot machine is not an easy task – if it’s done right, of course. And this is just one part of the job – the game needs to be integrated with the platform where it will be played, with the backend deciding the outcome of every round and handling the finances. But that’s a story for another time.
