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One of the many perks of playing free-to-play social apps like Gold Fish Casino Slots is the ability to play some of your favorite games, for free, wherever you are on your phone. This means finding popular options like Huff N’ More Puff or Journey to the Planet Moolah to play.
But while many of the games on the app are bringing those popular casino options to your mobile device (and even Facebook), sometimes the games start on the app and make their way to the casinos later.
Kelly Trask, Director, Slot Strategy & Performance at SciPlay (part of Light & Wonder), shared some behind the scenes details about how this process works, connected to one of their recent social-first games, Cash Wizard Magic Trio, which debuted on Gold Fish Casino Slots and other SciPlay mobile apps ahead of its planned casino release.
Real Insights from Players
Trask noted these tests occur regularly, giving app players their first chance to try a game, while giving game developers helpful information on what players think about a game before it’s released more widely.
“Games are tested monthly across the SciPlay social casino portfolio before being introduced into casinos through our Light and Wonder land-based business,” she said. “These tests evaluate a wide range of elements, including: Player art/character preferences, UI/UX layouts, slot feature triggers, variable math models, and many more.
“This frequent testing ensures that player feedback is central to the game development process, helping deliver an optimized and engaging gaming experience when the slots eventually reach the casino.”
Their testing process looks at a variety of aspects of the game to explore what gets players excited and keep them playing. The social casino apps are a natural testing ground, with players who love slot games and can provide key insights.
“Our Social casino games act like a real-time lab, giving our design teams a chance to observe how real players interact with our slot games in real-time,” Trask said. “Our strategy allows for time to make pivots and adjustments prior to launching across the rest of the portfolio.
“Here’s a few questions that come to mind while running critical tests:
- Which features cause players to extend play sessions? How is does the math and RTP
disruption work between those features?
- Do certain color palettes or animations increase play rates?
- Are players tapping out before the bonuses trigger — and why?”
Planning for Both Social Apps and Physical Casinos
As one could imagine, it takes time to develop a particular game and refine it both from a play perspective, and with the factors that are layered on top of it such as music and graphics.
Sometimes for the social apps, the direction is being led by the land-based casino slots being developed by teams already, while other times it’s happening within the social game development teams.
Trask said, “Launching a new slot game in a social casino typically takes a few months, depending on how complex the game is and whether it’s a brand-new creation or an adaptation of an existing title. At SciPlay, our portfolio is made up of two major buckets:
- Land-based ports, which is content currently being developed, or already existing in the Light and Wonder land portfolio.
- Original games,which are developed from scratch with the talented slot development and design team within SciPlay.”
The Development Process
In the case of Cash Wizard Magic Trio, it twists the three-pot mechanic in a new direction: Offering upgrades to a feature, available both on the base game and in the bonus. Fresh ideas like this come out of regular intervals throughout the company.
“Twice a year, design teams from around the world at Light & Wonder — across land-based, social, and iGaming — come together to dream up the next big slot hits,” Trask said. “We dive into brainstorming sessions, explore market trends, and let the data guide us into shaping the next big idea!”
The timing of when you see a particular game appear on a social app is generally determined in advance. Some are designed to pop up at the same time you see them in casinos, while others might appear in apps later on.
“We have a goal for each slot that we develop here at SciPlay,” she said. “The strategy is set up front for any slot game that will require dual development with our land-based partners, but not every one follows that path. You’ve probably seen some big simultaneous launches across the two channels with releases like, Huff N Puff Money Mansion, Ultimate Fire Link Triple Nova, and Dancing Drums Link which all required tight coordination across both businesses.”
For instance, in the case of Ultimate Fire Link Triple Nova, the game debuted on Gold Fish Casino Slots and other SciPlay apps earlier this month, while the game is still rolling out to many physical casinos. Brian Christopher debuted the game as part of a live stream recently, celebrating its availability on the social casino apps.
Finding Winners, on the Slots and Through the Games
Testing can take multiple forms. For instance, testing can reveal what resonates more with players, and can help accelerate decision making.
“If we find a home run in an A/B test, we keep the ‘winning’ version out and release to all of our players,” Trask said. “We call these games ‘social first’ and can promote the asset to our players to hype up the Casino launch!”
However, sometimes learnings indicate tweaks that could improve the game and overall player experience.
She added, “Our goal is to make every game feel great to play. So, if something’s not quite right or we see a chance to make it even better, we’ll take it down to work on those improvements.”
In other cases, games designed specifically for the social apps are so popular, they end up making the jump to physical casinos, Trask said.
“While traditionally games move from the casino world into the social casino app, the reverse has become more common in recent years,” she shared. “Occasionally, a slot game originally designed for our social casino proves so popular — with high player engagement, strong retention, and positive feedback — that it catches the attention of land-based and iGaming teams.
“In 2024, we had some big hits like Hot Hot Blazing Lock, Voodoo Jackpots, and Island Rising that all started as a social-first game!”
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