Casino games are a genre apart not just because of their nature (that they involve real money bets and potential wins) but also because of their formats. There are a few well-known game types that you stumble upon at Netbet – and pretty much every other similar outlet. Slot machines are the staple, along with classic casino games like blackjack, roulette, and baccarat. But lately, as the tastes of those interested in this type of entertainment have shifted, game creators are trying out new formats and new mechanics that resemble mainstream video games. As if their casino games were posing as one of them.
Crystals, clusters & cascades
One of the most successful social games of this day and age is Candy Crush. Based on the classic “match-3” mechanic, the game has become the most-downloaded and most-played title in pretty much every app marketplace over the course of its existence. It is frustrating fun and maddeningly entertaining, a game that truly deserves the title of “addicting”.
Slot machine developers have borrowed this classic mechanic for their own games. They took the skill out of it, of course, replacing it with chance: the tiles fall in place from above, form winning combinations of at least 3 (or 4) tiles without user intervention. But they have kept the cascade feature: the disappearing tiles leave gaps that are filled with others that fall into their place, potentially forming new winning combinations in the process.
“Cluster” slots, like Microgaming’s “Germinator” and Play’n GO’s “Reactoonz” are among the most popular games today.
Dungeon crawling
The “gamification” of casino games is still in its infancy, with many developers experimenting with new formats inspired by “traditional” video games. One of them is Evoplay, an award-winning iGaming development studio hailing from Ukraine, is the one going the furthest in this matter: it has built a “slot machine” that’s basically a dungeon crawler.
Called “Dungeon: Immortal Evil”, the game allows us to join an unnamed warrior in his quest across a monster-infested dungeon (although it looks a bit more like a castle’s hallway) where he has to finish off various monsters. Walking into a room costs a fixed amount, and every monster slain drops loot. At various stages, our unnamed warrior encounters mini-bosses, and there is also a big “boss” that’s only accessible through a special bonus stage. Here, our warrior can not only find bigger piles of loot but also various pieces of equipment.
Fusing role-playing with the game of chance is not an easy task, yet Evolplay has done a great job at it. The game has surprisingly beautiful graphics, worthy of some of the RPGs we loved over the years, and its gameplay is fast-paced and action-packed. It remains to be seen if and when other developers follow their lead.
