It’s a lot like writing music, the lyrics need to work with the guitar,
which needs to work with the drums etc. Tis balance is a huge part of the puzzle, game makers are always agonising over the right mathematical structure for the game, agonising over the right style
and mechanics knowing these two elements need to live in harmony. TODD HAUSHALTER
Chief Product Officer Evolution
Evolution Games Maestro
At ICE 2025, Evolution unveiled a host of new releases, from Ice Fishing, Marble Race, Race Track and Fireball Roulette, through to Red Baron, Super Color Game, War and Lightning Bac Bo. G3 talks to Evolution’s Chief Product Officer, Todd Haushalter, about the well-spring he draws upon for game inspiration.
Todd, what is it about games that fascinates you? What still lights up your brain/excites you in terms of game design and development?
Great question! For me, it's all about the puzzle - you're trying to create something that the public will enjoy whilst trying to stand out amongst the thousands of games that are released. If you mess up any element of the game, such as the maths, the visuals or the mechanics, you will ruin it. Even if you have good mechanics but they don't match the style of game, it's almost impossible to get a game that works. In its simplest form, a casino game is where the player puts in a dollar and gets back $0.95 and they need to find that to be highly enjoyable over the long run – it’s no wonder most games never work, so I'm eternally intrigued by the puzzle -some people like crosswords or sudoku, I like inventing casino games.
You're a creative person that loves maths - Left brain versus right brain seems to get equal share - what gives?
Tat's a sophisticated observation about all great game makers. Maths and game design must go hand in hand, if you have a game that looks and feels aggressive with aggressive mechanics but it pays very often and very small, it will kill the game. Even though the mechanics could be good, without the right maths that game will die.
Tis is a lot like writing music, the lyrics need to work with the guitar, which needs to work with the drums etc. Tis balance is a huge part of the puzzle, game makers are always agonising over the right
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mathematical structure for the game, agonising over the right style and mechanics knowing these two elements need to live in harmony.
Where does the inspiration for game development come from? You’ve talked about delivering solutions to operator problems – where does it start?
It comes from everywhere you can possibly imagine, sometimes it's not my inspiration but someone in the company will come up with an idea. Sometimes, it's born out of asking the question “what do I not like about a given game and how could we address this in a future game?” Often times, it is born out of asking if you could do anything you want in a game, what would it be, and then you'll design the mechanic around that. When you live deeply in the world of games, you are always coming up with new ideas, they just come to you. Tis is probably the same way a musician comes up with new riffs or a chef comes up with new ideas for dinner.
Creatives talk about the creative process like alchemy. Unrepeatable in many respects. Do you agree?
Not entirely, as I think there are sub-formulas to this process, and that is why great songwriters, along with great game makers, tend to repeat it over and over. Perhaps people like to talk about it as alchemy or being unrepeatable as an excuse for not finding the right answer, but that is our job as game makers to deliver something that delights players. I know what they mean by using the word alchemy
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