{"id":49385,"date":"2022-02-08T08:47:00","date_gmt":"2022-02-08T08:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fruityslots.com\/4theplayer-answers-your-questions\/"},"modified":"2023-02-15T08:40:33","modified_gmt":"2023-02-15T08:40:33","slug":"4theplayer-answers-your-questions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fruityslots.com\/igaming-news\/4theplayer-answers-your-questions\/","title":{"rendered":"4ThePlayer Answers Your Questions!"},"content":{"rendered":"
Firstly, thank you for all taking the time to ask us questions! We love to engage with our players and help them understand everything about slots, so let’s jump into the questions! <\/span> When designing a new slot do you allow the designer full creative control or do you come up with a concept as a business and then design?<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n We come up with a concept as a team and then brief the designers – they then have the challenge of bringing it to life. Our concepts are constantly being driven forward by our creative director, our product director, and Andrew, our CEO. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n How long is it from the drawing board to the casino? How long roughly does it take to develop a game?<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n This is a question a few of you asked and I think you might be surprised at the answer: it takes around 12 months to make a game, from initial conversation through design, development, localisation, certification, testing and – finally – go-live! <\/span><\/p>\n Sometimes the cycle can be slightly quicker, but on average that’s our timeline, mostly because every game has something unique or fun in it! We are very much a boutique slot studio, not a factory churning out games as quickly as we can.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n When coming up with ideas for slots, where do you start? Is it with a name or a slot concept? <\/b><\/span><\/p>\n The name is one of the very last things we do! Each game has a code name internally and then it is given a name.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n How many designs and ideas actually make it through to the planning phase?<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n Less than half – we spend a lot of time bouncing around the idea internally to see what we think of it, and then we show a pruned down selection to some of our customers (Casinos) to see what they think. Sometimes an idea needs more work or just doesn’t quite have the magic we’re looking for. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Is it all completed in a creative room or can somebody just say “I have a great idea hear me out”?<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n We are a very collaborative team and listen to each other’s ideas, so it is very much anyone who can have an idea! Most often, though, the good ones tend to be from Andrew, our CEO. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Is there a set period of time to submit and to make the game to beat out other providers or do you all talk to each other?<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n Game developers do not talk to each other a lot, believe it or not, so we often have no idea what others are releasing and when. This might seem odd when we are all releasing similar themes, but there is honestly no game developers’ WhatsApp group, as helpful as it would be sometimes! <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n With so many games following the same concepts, does the popularity of other slot providers’ slots using this concept affect your slot building process and if so why? It is surely easier to get lost in a large market of similar slots?<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n One good thing about us is we always innovate and try something new, either with a completely new feature like 7 Elements or 10x Rewind or with a twist on a popular idea, as with 4 Fantastic Fish. So far, we have not had anyone release the game as us! \ud83d\ude42<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n What is the most popular slot that you have released?<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n Our top 3 slots are:<\/span><\/p>\n Our new game, 4 Secret Pyramids, is also going down very well with players so far, so we’re excited to see where it settles on our list! If we included games other than slots, 100 Bit Dice would be our second best performing game over time. <\/span> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Do any slot providers have a gamble themselves? <\/b><\/span><\/p>\n Winner – <\/b> Niallo<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n We do and it’s one of the things that makes us different – we know what makes those magic moments and pain points in games. If we didn’t play a game, we know no one else probably would either. <\/span><\/p>\n It would be like a cake baker saying he didn’t like cake – how would he know what tasted awesome and what didn’t?<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n How easy is it to create a new slot that’s based on existing franchises or TV shows? For example, does permission need to be given from HBO for a game about The Walking Dead? Do the studios give out a list of things you can and cannot do within that slot? I’ve always been curious about that kind of thing.<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n It all depends on the brand and what has been licensed to make the game. We haven’t licensed any brands at 4ThePlayer, but in my previous role I was heavily involved with blockbuster brands from Paramount and Warner Bros. <\/span><\/p>\n The games studio needs to licence the brand from the owner, or sometimes via an agency. After that, yes, you are right: they give you a list of what you can licence and – importantly – the cost to use the licence. Generally, the more that you want to use the more it will cost, especially if you want to show things like actors’ faces or video clips from the brand. <\/span><\/p>\n Making branded games is a very expensive business these days, and it’s really important to choose brands that are worth the time and expense. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Seems you are releasing games more often – have you ramped up production recently?<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n Indeed we have! Anyone that has worked in a startup knows it can take a while to fine-tune the engine and get things working as you want them to. We are now full steam ahead with a plan to hit 10 or so games a year. However, we never plan on releasing 5 games a month or anything like that – remember, we’re a boutique, not a factory. Hopefully, you can tell we take a lot of time with each release and we also spend time doing things like this and we want that to always continue. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Can we see some more games like 6 wild sharks, where you decide how the bonus plays out?<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n Winner –<\/b> Jsw2020<\/span><\/a> <\/span><\/p>\n Funny you should ask as we have another game coming soon – 4 Deals with the Devil – where the player can choose exactly which bonus they would like to play for. Watch this space! \ud83d\ude42 <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Do you plan on staying volatile with all your slots now?<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n We naturally do make more volatile games, because it allows us to do more with the features – it opens up the journey you can go on and also the big win potential. That said, we do have some ideas for some slightly less volatile games, so as ever watch this space!<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n How many spins do you do in testing for a new game? <\/b><\/span><\/p>\n Each game has a different number of spins that we test it with based on the frequency of the features and max wins, the volatility of the slot and the complexity of the features, which can all dictate how quickly we are able to run tests. In general, we run around 100 billion spins per slot! <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n What do you think of the UK as a market compared to other jurisdictions? Is it difficult to navigate in comparison to other territories? <\/b><\/span><\/p>\n Regulation always adds challenges but we believe it is important to protect players so we welcome it. The UK market does have an ever-growing list of regulations but that is to be expected with a mature market. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
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