REALISTIC GAMES
key part of the game, where excitement levels peak, is the ball spinning and the anticipation of it landing in your number. We believe players want that experience recreated online – so we have spent a lot of time trying to make sure the ball, its movement and the wheel all behave as they would in a live environment. We don’t think players are quite so concerned about the lay-out or the colour of the cloth, although these things have to be well- presented and functional. They want to see that ball spinning and believe it’s the real deal. Slots are similar - the graphics are important and branded games can do a very good job at attracting players. However, we believe that keeping players coming back to play again and again is all down to the maths model. If you can come up with a game that is simple and effective that allows them to find the hooks in it they will enjoy playing it. They’re playing for the excitement and entertainment and, believe it or not, the kick in the stomach. What you take away every time is the memories you get during the thrill of finding and achieving those hooks. It’s all psychology.
features, at various stages of development. We hope this will make us even more competitive.
CIO: What does the next
12 months hold for Realistic? AC: More content and, we hope a lot more clients. The company is growing very quickly, which in itself is a challenge. We are confident that a lot of the new games will be popular with both clients and their players and we’re excited about where it might lead us. We make sure each game is tailored specifically to each piece of hardware and software. We don’t pay lip-service to this, it is far too important to do that.
CIO: What do you think the reels sector can do
to move forward and stay innovative in the coming years? AC: I think it needs to take more risks. There’s no
silver bullet as such, people just need to keep coming up with new maths models and new concepts and ideas. Maths is what make slots fun, not just the graphics. We think players want a rollercoaster and volatility within games and manufacturers should have the courage of their convictions to give it to them.
CIO: What is most exciting to you about CIO: What were the first products you were
involved with? AC: The first products we put on the market were fruit machine simulators which went down well. Then in 2002 we developed a bingo-based game called “Cash Line” for Rank. After then working on graphics and the logic of a few games for Bet365 and Stan James we realised we needed our own platform. Third party platforms did not meet our requirements. We took a few years to develop that and then released it in 2011. It’s been hard work but it was the correct decision for us and we’ve not looked back since.
CIO: What does Realistic Games bring to the
table over competitors? AC: A passion for the product and a realism about
the way players play. We also take risks. Rather than just copy other people’s games or use the same maths model again and again under different skins we prefer a different approach. We’re also happy to give new things a go and see what works. We’ve currently got 19 products live and are working hard to add more high quality games to that offering across Flash, phone and tablet. We have 30 – 40 games, with a number of unique and innovative
business right now? AC: We’re having a lot of fun. We’ve got a friendly and non-corporate relationship with each of our clients. Everyone is working hard and playing hard in the team and we have a lot of talented people. We like competing and trying to push ourselves to achieve the same levels of success as some of our well established competitors. We think we’ve got what it takes to do that.
CIO: And finally… please tell us about your mysterious dove. AC: Dove Randall is
the Realistic Games mascot [homage to legendary games slots designer, Dove Randall, who worked for Barcrest ‘back in the day’. IGT loved his work so much they bought Barcrest to get him!] He’s a white dove who appears somewhere in all of our Flash slot games – he’s sometimes quite hard to find though, which is part of the fun. Hopefully, you’ll be seeing a lot more of him!
JULY/AUGUST 2013 55
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62