As the iGaming landscape becomes ever more saturated, the difficulty of developing a concept that is truly fresh hits levels never before seen. This represents a conundrum tackled day by day by teams across the globe.
However, for Gaming Corps the answer is two-fold. Firstly, a fusion of notoriously popular themes is causing much internal optimism, while a pair of newly introduced mechanics are tasked with heightening the entertainment factor.
Alexander Mavroudis, Product Owner, speaks to iGaming Expert to reveal all, while also elaborating on the key challenges that the above situation exhibits, and the importance of truly tailoring titles to player preferences.
Pinball & plinko – a perfect combination
Amid a promise to deliver “frenetic bouncing fun”, Gaming Corps has united the ever present and popular realms of pinball and plinko within the studio’s latest release, Plinkball5000.
This, Mavroudis, centred around a belief that the arcade space still has plenty of fire when it comes to innovation, in addition to insights demonstrating that players are hungry for more.
“Initially, we really wanted to create something with a Pinball theme as we enjoyed the zany energy that Pinball brings to the table, as well as the nostalgia it evokes,” he says.
“After we broke Pinball down to its nuts and bolts, and decided on which parts to use, we then searched for a game that would fuse really well with the Pinball theme, and would also serve as a point of familiarity for players.
“And what better game to match the chaos of Pinball than Plinko? Plinko’s grid and prize trays allowed us to create a sort of scaffolding all around the untamed energy of a Pinball game, and harness it to create moments of exploding excitement and anticipation.”
Ultimately, Plinkball 5000 is tasked with offering the perfect blend of innovation and familiarity, with it hoped that this will feel fresh and exciting to players both old and new.
The challenge of being unique
Despite offering much potential across numerous regions worldwide, the iGaming ecosystem is increasingly saturated and is accompanied by much pressure to deliver.
Continuing the conversation, Mavroudis looks at how this impacts development protocols when it comes to aiming to introduce something new and appealing for customers.
“Development protocols have withstood the test of these challenges relatively unchanged; iterative design without disrupting the familiar user experience that players expect,” he explains.
“Innovation in this space often happens incrementally – through small updates like introducing a new feature or reimagining a proven game mechanic.
“The key is to ground new ideas in familiar gameplay so they feel fresh but accessible. This approach allows us to explore new concepts while maintaining user trust and engagement.”
Central to achieving such an ambition are the often visiting buzzworks of localisation and customisation. Truly understanding player preferences and cultural nuances can often bring the metaphorical pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
Building on his previous point, Mavroudis shares how much importance is placed on such techniques by Gaming Corps with a view to permitting players to foster an experience that could be considered truly unique to themselves.
“Whether it’s letting players tweak volatility settings, enhance gameplay with feature boosts or bonus buys, or choose when to cash out, that sense of ownership makes a huge difference,” he explains.
“We see it as an extension of the innovation-meets-familiarity approach: offer core mechanics people know and enjoy, but let them tailor the experience so it feels uniquely theirs. It not only boosts engagement but also gives us valuable insight into what players actually want more of.”
Fresh mechanics can often be a significant difference maker within the developmental process as suppliers jockey in ramping up the entertainment factor.
To this end, Gaming Corps has ventured down this avenue on a pair of occasions recently in debuting X-MY-WAY and A-MAZE-CADES in titles such as Golf Champion and Hyena Heist, respectively. To conclude, Mavroudis details just what these bring to the table.
“The X-MY-WAY mechanic leans heavily on the concept of agency by allowing players to fully control the volatility of each individual decision in a game round, while retaining the option to cash out at any point,” he notes.
“The A-MAZE-CADES mechanic is a fresh twist to cascading slots, allowing for more frequent wins due to its unique cascading pattern.”
As a final thought, a slight look ahead was offered at what could be next for the studio. Despite remaining extremely coy on the subject, rest assured that Gaming Corps is firmly of the belief that July could well be seeing the next big thing hit the market.
