Riding the wave
Israel-based gaming supplier Spinomenal has certainly grown since its launch in 2014. Once a small company, the developer is now a top competitor in the online slot space, boasting a portfolio of more than 300 titles and adding 1-3 new games each week.
The company’s new release Egyptian Tale is part of the Spinomenal Universe, a series of games interconnected by themes and similar mechanics. Offering an Ancient Egypt theme and a Mega Jackpot worth 1000x stake, the title recently made it into VegasSlotsOnline News’ Slots of the Week.
In light of Egyptian Tales’ popularity in the VSO News office, we sat down with Nir Ronen, the supplier’s chief commercial and operations officer, to find out about the Spinomenal Universe and how it helps players build connections with games.
You joined Spinomenal as business development manager in 2018. How has the company changed in the four years since then?
When I joined Spinomenal we only had about five employees. At the time, I was the first one focused on business in the company, before that we were just dealing with product.
We hit the wave and we just kept riding it
Then, 2018 marked our big expansion. At the end of that year, we released our first big hit, Demi Gods II. We actually changed the platform on which we developed games with that release. The results were amazing and the performance of the game really gave us a big boost. We hit the wave and we just kept riding it. We’re still riding it today!
What is the secret to providing new exciting games on such a regular basis?
It’s about planning your product properly. We found that players definitely like changes between games – you can’t give them the same game each time – but players also like mechanics that they feel comfortable with. The key is to change new games in such a way that we are innovating them enough while also providing something familiar to the player.
What kind of features does the modern slot player want from their games?
Slot players are a big audience so it really depends on the age, the territory, and their history with the industry. If you go to players who are used to playing in land-based casinos, for example, they will like a very specific type of classic game.
In contrast, the new Asian or Central European players are looking for epic-style games. For those players, we launched the new Spinomenal Universe feature. We adopted the modern content trend, seen with the likes of Marvel and Disney, of creating a common reality of a number of storylines that coexist.
the games of the Egyptian Empire coexist in the same reality
We applied this to our games like Egyptian Tale, which is part of the storyline of the Egyptian Empire. All the games of the Egyptian Empire coexist in the same reality and have the same basic features and elements. That way, players will always recognize certain elements within the different games.
What other features does Egyptian Tale have that will make it stand out from other slots?
Egyptian Tale has no specific story, but it is basically a warehouse of all the different artifacts and elements of the Egyptian Empire. This includes the Sphynx, the Scarab beetles, and all the other symbols you will find scattered throughout the series
In regards to the mechanics, we have the buy feature which is something we are adding to all of our games. Players really love this because it lets them play the game the way they want to. We also have the bonus game and three different types of fixed jackpots. Those are progressive and local.
Then you have the extra wilds feature which is something that a lot of providers look at as super simple, but if you add the extra narrative you can turn it into a very exciting element. Combining this with animations and the right setup makes this really interesting.
How does the ideation process work for the Universe?
We think differently in 2022 to previous years. In the past, it has been a bit of a madhouse. We all get into the same room and throw ideas at each other while having some fun. It was a very unorganized process.
Everything feels much easier to innovate
When we started working on the Spinomenal Universe, it confined us and put us in a much more organized place. Everything feels much easier to innovate. We try to plan each narrative in advance from the beginning to the end. Then from those big storylines, we started to go into detail for each chapter, which in this case is a game.
What do you have lined up next for the Spinomenal Universe?
We are planning to launch our Spinomenal lobby and we are going to add a feature that allows you to take a journey within the games. For example, if you’re playing Demi Gods II you might get a popup with a narrative telling you about something that is going on in another game. You will then have the option to switch to this game or decline and carry on playing.
We don’t want our players to get tired of the games they’re playing. With this new feature, if a player wants a change, they can go out to the lobby and see what other releases they can play similar to the ones they like.
We have big plans for the Universe, but I was very surprised to see that everybody was so interested in the narrative. It means that the industry is really mature now. It’s not just fruit games anymore. We are really becoming a more mature industry and it makes me happy to be a part of this innovation.