Pulse


GAME DEVELOPMENT BOOMING GAMES


Booming Games: Booming Business


Roughly eight and a half years now, I and my partners founded Booming Games. At the beginning it was more of a family and friends dream with a handful of passionate people and little experience, however with hard work, an evolving team and a lot of experience gathering, it evolved into a top tier game supplier. I previously worked in film and television as a producer, and therefore have a creative background and mindset. I would say nearly every start-up has that type of experience at the beginning.


However, Flash was only just changing across to HTML5, so we decided to make this our specialism. Our thinking at the time was that if we now concentrate on developing everything purely in HTML5 in a fast and efficient way we would be one of the first studios to offer content purely in this format.


In the first four years, we experienced lots of ups and downs. Tere were times where we'd expand, release amazing games, and the platform was stable and other moments where things happened which we were not equipped to deal with. Tat changed as we gained experience and a year or so before COVID hit, we had strong momentum.


We increased the number of team members, we released more and better games - with a runner every now and then. Now we're looking at doubling our growth nearly every year, we have 150 employees, and I'm very proud of these achievements.


What have been the challenges of scaling up in such a fast way, particularly during the pre- and post-COVID period?


We managed to really begin growing at pace around a year before the pandemic. Tis enabled us to understand what we need to get better at, where the key points of our company are and what we need to prioritise. I would say one of the most difficult things to establish was the structure. Tis sounds very generalised but getting the structure between the different


Max Niehusen CEO,


Booming Games


areas of the business was difficult - sustaining the best possible infrastructure in the background on the technological side of things, building the games, creating a shelf game approach with titles ready and certified, and having an efficient sales and account management approach.


Te balance between having all of this in the right company structure was one of the most important learning curves we have had at Booming Games. Booming Games has a co- ownership approach. We don't want too many hierarchies. Of course, you need some to create a structure, but we want everyone in the team to participate in what we build and feel a part of it. Tis is reflected in how our employees stay with us for many years. Tat's something I and our partners in the background are proud of.


How has content strategy changed as Booming Games has scaled?


We've always had an eye on the latest industry trends. Once we identify something new that's working, we add the Booming Games touch. This has been a big part of the success we’ve experienced in recent years. Of course, we also want to release new features, mechanics, and mixtures ourselves and that has worked amazingly in the recent years.


P66 WIRE / PULSE / INSIGHT / REPORTS


Doubling growth year on year with no signs of slowing down, Max Niehusen, CEO of Booming Games, reflects on the company's rapid growth from humble beginnings and the role of


brainstorming summits in masterminding content strategy.


It's about having the perfect mix. Ultimately, we offer an entertainment product and want to satisfy all player desires and needs. Our client is the player and the player wants to be entertained. He/she wants diversity in terms of content, themes, and presentation, but tends to enjoy popular mechanics which have proven themselves in the market. We've recently changed our cadence of games to a game release every two weeks which gives us a lot of flexibility to satisfy different game categories.


Te titles in our top 10 performers constantly change, which is a nice example of our recent success. Six of our last seven games were all a massive hit. Tey all sat in the top 10, with two climbing up into our top three games. Whilst we didn't have the quantity at first, now we have the quantity and the quality. Tis gives us the chance to mix between three different categories. First, we have our classic themed titles - you don't always need to reinvent the wheel. Ten we have industry 'on-trend' games featuring Ways-based slots and Megaways mechanics. Te third category encompasses other types of games including cluster pay, cascading games, three-wheelers versus five- wheeled, and five by three games.


We've always had an eye on the latest industry trends. Once we identify something new that's working, we add the Booming Games touch. Tis has been a big part of the success we’ve experienced in recent years. Of course, we also want to release new features, mechanics, and mixtures ourselves and that has worked amazingly in the recent years. Te goal is to try and consistently find the golden middle of offering great variety. All our product team will tell you that a ‘straightforward game’ can be very simple from a layout and conceptual point of view, but the actual execution - how the entertainment and presentation aspects make players feel entertained over time - is where the magic happens. Tis is something we have got very good at and continue to improve.


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