Golden Fish Tank Party – Q&A With Yggdrasil Gaming

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As we head towards the end of 2024, we sat down with Krzysztof Poznański, Head of Games at Yggdrasil Gaming, to find out more about Golden Fish Tank Party, the latest release from this team.

The Golden Fish Tank series is one of the most recognisable in this studio’s catalogue, so we were curious to find out everything there is to know, and how the team approached such an important release.

Hi Krzysztof, thanks for talking to us! Golden Fish Tank is definitely one of the most memorable releases in your team’s catalogue. What made you decide to revisit this name for a third time?

That’s a funny story actually. We fondly remember Golden Fish Tank and its sequel, which gave players a lot of fantastic adventures.

We wanted to revisit this great theme, while adding a fun, modern twist to it, so that our players can enjoy the experience they know and love in a brand-new way.

Golden Fish Tank Party has some pretty big differences from Golden Fish Tank and Golden Fish Tank 2 Gigablox. Did you know you wanted to change things up this time?

We had a lot of brainstorming going on around the direction of the Golden Fish Tank franchise.

We knew we wanted to revisit it, and while the original features of the game are great on their own (and we keep them in mind for the future), we felt like we could do something different this time.

We came up with the idea of a Spin-Off instead of a traditional Sequel, to mix things up – it synergized well with the new approach of blending new mechanisms with the good old elements.

It doesn’t collide with our ideas for a more classical Golden Fish Tank 3, so no doors are closed!

Can you tell us a little more about the decision to include two different Free Spins options in this release?

The core of the Golden Fish Tank series has always been player’s exploration  – finding new, clever ways to reach Big Wins through sheer curiosity and persistence.

The original entries in the series did that through the Random Features in Free Spins, to surprise the player with explosive combos of features.

We wanted to achieve a similar feeling of curiosity, just with a different approach, involving tangible progress through the Multiplier Collection Bar. Hence the multiple Free Spins Modes appeared, giving space for curiosity and exploration.

The most noticeable aspect of Golden Fish Tank Party for us is the removal of the ‘pick’ option that made the original so popular. Was it a tough decision to remove this, or do you feel the features that are here more than make up for it?

An on-point question! This bold new, direction of the game’s features was pivotal to us taking the Spin-Off approach to Golden Fish Tank Party.

Innovation gives huge opportunities to discover new, fascinating ways to excite the players, but we’ll never drop any true-and-tested, fantastic ideas just to make space for new ones. You will surely see the return of the Pick Feature sooner or later!

Perhaps tied into our last question, the Multiplier Collection is a brand-new feature in this release and one we haven’t seen in this series so far. What led to the decision to add this progressive element?

The slot market has evolved significantly since the times of the first and second Golden Fish Tank games.

We have seen the rise of a lot of new, exciting playstyles, redefining what Slot Games can be and how much more room there is in this magnificent genre to discover.

The original Golden Fish Tank games offered fantastic Free Spins and we wanted to extend this excitement to the Base Game, by tying these two modes together with a strong, bonding feature of the Multiplier Collection. It gives a tangible, growing reward for sticking with the game even on the spins which not yet triggered the Free Spins  – turning the FS into a magnificent finale of the player’s journey.

Poetics aside, it makes for a highly memorable experience we wanted to try out!

Can you tell us some more about the maths in Golden Fish Tank Party, and how it is or isn’t different to the other Golden Fish Tank releases?

That’s a tricky question. As we all know, the math model is the core of any Slot Game and even between similar games, these can differ vastly.

Considering that Golden Fish Tank Party has a progressive collection element – a brand new feature in the series – it required a brand new approach to designing the math.

I can’t go into the details of course, but even if I could, we would need a separate interview just to scratch the surface of this fascinating process!

The artwork in Golden Fish Tank Party is quite different from the first two releases in this series. Did you think it was important to offer a new style of fish since many of the features in this release are new?

You are not far off. Since it is a Spin-Off, we wanted to reflect this new tone of the game both in its features and its audiovisual style.

Can you tell us your favourite of the two Free Spins options?

As we played the game thoroughly in our studio, both Free Spins modes have their own fans.

I find it difficult to pick just one over the other, simply because they offer such vastly different experiences – I adore the pristine win potential of Cash Party Free Spins, and the robust spectacle of Wild Party Free Spins. It’s really a hard choice to make!

Do you think we will see some more releases using the Golden Fish Tank name?

Absolutely!

Since we’re coming to the end of the year, can you tell us which is your favourite release from Yggdrasil in 2024?

There have been so many it’s difficult to pick just one! Each of these games provides a different sensation and excitement, packed in vastly different spectacles, tailor-made for different audiences, different intended experiences, and different volatilities.

However, I have a sentiment soft spot for Vikings Go To Egypt, as – besides being a great game on its own – it has been a glorious return of our flagship game series. And a fun adventure to design, too!