How to make amazing slot machine game in less than 3 months

(Full version of this article and other MBaaS related posts - https://blog.blazesoft.ca)

There are dozens social slot games out there. Most of them have fantastic UI. Great symbols, animations and sound effects. 

But when you review store ratings and read the comments, you notice that most of the slot machines have severe %RTP (Return to Player) and Hit Frequency issues and unplanned Volatility ratio. 

The reason is that most of the games you play out there can't make scientific calculations of Slot machine RTP, Hit Frequency and other important parameters. 

To build your own "Slotomania" like game, to provide great experience and to be able to control your game economy, the following components should be configured properly and if needed you should be able to make quick adjustments. 

Pay Line - The line on the slot window. 

Number of Pay Lines - Slot machines may have several pay lines. Can be 3 lines, 5 lines or even 100 or more on video slots games. 

Pay Table - Area in the Slot Machine that shows the payouts for each winning scenario. 

The pay table will also tell you if there are other types of payouts.

Bonus Symbol - Combination of bonus symbols (as defined in Pay table) triggers a "mini-game" in a slot machine game that allows the player to win additional goods. 

Scatter Symbol - Combination of X Scatter symbols initiates "Free Spins". Spins that generate additional profit to the player without paying for those spins. 

Wild Symbol - Acts as a joker symbol to make up a winning combination on the pay line. Can be also used for other purposes, based on the "game play" of specific machine. 

Reels - Rotating barrels (or any other graphical elements) on which the symbols appear. 

In modern slot machines, you can find different number of reels - two, three, four, five.

Reels can have different number of rows. Usually it's from one to 5. Most popular is three. 

The most common are three and five. Statistically, more reels, it's harder to get jackpot. 

Besides the visible symbols, you should be able to configure total amount of symbols for each reel. 

For example, in reel 1 you can have 30 symbols in total, while only 3 are visible. and in reel 2 and 3, you will have 50 symbols 

Based on the terms described above, you should be able to calculate your - 

RTP - Return to Player (RTP) is the term casinos / social casino games use to describe the percentage of what slot machine will pay back to players over time. For example, if you make a hundred $1 bets on a machine on which the RTP is 90%, statistically, you might expect to get back about $90 in wins.

Hit Frequency - How often a machine will stop on a winning combination. For example, if a machine has a hit frequency of 10%, it means that statistically, the machine will stop on a winning combination about 10% of the time. It’s worth noting that many slots allow players to bet on multiple lines on each spin. The result is that, on a single spin, a player could get one or more winning combinations, along with numerous losing combinations. To the player, it may feel as though he is winning more often, but as always, over time the losing combinations will far outnumber the winning ones.

Volatility - The ratio of size versus frequency of major wins in a slot game.

So, what's your options as a social slots game developer - 

1. Client side Slots logic development - You can plan and code all mentioned above in your app as client-side development. 

Cons - 

1. Client side development requires to "re-publish" the app every time you make changes. On some stores it's a matter of several days until your change is public 

2. Client side development is dangerous - you are always in risk that your dev guys will harm existing functionality during change process 

3. Not having these values as server side parameters - makes that process super inefficient. sometimes, you need to make frequent changes (same day or week) and it's just impossible. 

4. Security / Security / Security - having all your logic as "client-side", makes your app vulnerable to hackers, "copycats". For example - any app that resides on Android store, can be easily downloaded as APK. 

Pro's - 

I can't really think of any, besides some tactical advantage of making something quicker (and very inefficient) and having "fun" of managing crazy excel files with formulas and machine details. 

OR...

2. Server side Slots logic development - having your slot related logic securely managed on server side 

I can't really think about Con's in this scenario. Client (mobile / web / Facebook or any other platform) do not control the outcome of the spin. it comes as a value for each spin based on all the parameters mentioned above (paytable , RTP, .....) 

Security aspects are fully covered because the app is useless without having connection with company's backend. And there are various methods to make sure that only "legit" app will make the connection - SSL tunnel, SSL Pinning, handshake mechanisms and more..

What Blazesoft has to offer - 

Blazesoft  developed A-Z slot backend. You can easily manage all parameters mentioned above from your admin screen and with 1 click calculation expected %RTP.

And it takes one more click to publish your changes to your players. 

Blazesoft develops API that allows new or existing gaming companies to create new machines via provided SDK and to receive the output values to your Slot Machine based on predefined configuration. 

All the day to day management is done via advanced CRM system. 

Contact Blazesoft for more details: [email protected] 

https://www.blazesoft.ca

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