Interview JOE SIGRIST - IGT
Pushing the envelope
At the G2E show in Las Vegas, G3 spent time with Joe Sigrist, IGT’s Vice President, Game Development & Global Product Management, to find out more about the direction of IGT’s most recent game development
Game development is all about the math - and the win- nings, but in recent times there has been a shift in emphasis within slot games, whereby the base game has been relegated to something of an afterthought, with developers concentrating almost exclusively on the bonuses. It’s a situation that IGT is looking to address.
“At this year’s G2E you’ll see the latest generation of games in which we’ve poured attention and detail over the base game,” explains Joe Sigrist, Vice President of Global Product Development and Operations at IGT. “We’ve included great graphic experiences and com- pelling mechanics in the base game itself, plus we’ve enabled players to win significant rewards in the base game too, so that they’re not just waiting for the base game to finish before winning the ‘real’ money in the bonus.”
Launched at G2E, IGT’s The Ellen DeGeneres Show games are prime examples, whereby the bonuses and the base game have lots of dynamic elements, lots of potential rewards. The most successful titles, according to Mr. Sigrist, are those that manage to combine a great brand with a powerful game mechanic. “It all starts with a developer’s vision for the game, which we started with even before we approached the licensors,” he outlines. “You have to have a creative approach to handling a big
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It is a testament to the game design team that we’ve been able to not only bring these
games to G2E, but take orders at the show and ship directly
after the event. The games will hit casino floors in November.”
licence and that’s how we approached The Ellen DeGeneres Show. We then worked with the licensor to represent the brand in the right way. It’s always better to get more input from the licensor, and with a brand such as this, it’s all about imbuing the game with the personality of the brand.”
In a games such as The Ellen DeGeneres Show, which is based essentially on a chat show licence without obvi- ous gaming elements, IGT had to strip the show back to its fundamental mechanics and build from there. “We began the process by looking for words that we associ- ation with The Ellen DeGeneres Show - Clever, Fun, Entertaining,” describes Mr. Sigrist. “We put those down on paper and built to those strengths in the game.
“We have shown that games can be successful across land- side, real wager and Double Down. We are
also driving game development starting from Double Down with an eye to taking that game ultimately to casino floors - we are really pushing the envelope on that. You can also make a game much more quickly on social platforms and gain immediate feedback before taking that game to land-side. We will be making some of the most successful games on DoubleDown available online, across social and EGMs.” Joe Sigrist, IGT
“We knew that dancing had to be a major part of the gameplay, as it’s featured so prominently in the show. There is always a minimum set of images, sound FX and music that you want from a licence and we work hard to ensure that we achieve much more than the ‘ground level’ requirements,” says Mr. Sigrist. “However, the starting point for any licence isn’t actually the brand, but the player. We start by asking what type of game the player would want from the licence. Should it be a gam- bler style game, or lean more towards an entertainment style of gameplay. We discuss the game mechanics and
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