Meet the Slots Creators – PearFiction Studios’ Thierry Semoff Interview

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Can you please tell us a bit about yourself and the reasons why you founded PearFiction Studios?

Greetings and thank you so much for inviting me, SlotCalendar! It’s much appreciated.

My name is Thierry Semoff and I’m the founder and CEO of PearFiction Studios. I’ve been in the iGaming industry for just over six years, having started in 2016 when we switched from making mobile games to online casino games.

As CEO I wear a lot of hats, but my main responsibilities are leading game design and the studio’s pipeline. Prior to launching PearFiction Studios, I had a busy journal of business ventures. I started my career as an aerospace technician and turned entrepreneur in the mid-90s to shepherd the development of a few multimedia companies. Then, helmed the production and design of a portfolio of educational programs, applications, and mobile games.

In 2014 PearFiction Studios was founded to develop casual mobile games for Android and iOS platforms. Originally, we published about a dozen small to mid-sized social games such as Blitz Racer, Blocks Quiz, Tiny Necromancer, Alien Road Rage, and later PowerUp Slots™, which ultimately led to our progression into iGaming.

What would you say are the best three slots released so far by PearFiction?

Squealin’ Riches™ has been our most successful title thus far, offering a host of features: LockNWin™, free spins, a progress bar, a bonus wheel, and a bonus buy to name just a few. In the course of the game, host Piggy will jump on the reels to introduce random game modifiers such as extra free spins symbols to trigger the feature, adding Piggy gold coins to unlock the LockNWin™ game, upgrading the jackpot values, as well as other special modifiers.

The second game on our list is Chicago Gold™. It has been almost a year since it was launched, and it’s still going strong. Chicago Gold™ was a significant release across Microgaming’s portfolio of games.

The third game on our list would be Blazing Mammoth. We were given the opportunity to use the popular EpicStrike™ mechanic from 9 Masks of Fire™ by Gameburger Studios to develop this game. Our goal was to pimp that engine the most we could while giving it a PearFiction twist.

Looking to the future, what is the next big release PearFiction is planning?

We are very excited to announce that 15 Tridents™ will be available from 8 March. Poseidon, the Greek God of the sea, and specifically his mythical Trident, became the inspiration for this game.

Poseidon’s underwater realm is the setting for the game, which features bioluminescent corals and sea creatures. The god of the sea, his wife Amphitrite, and three sirens represent the highest value symbols in the game. Each character will also perform some random modifiers in both the base game and the free spins game.

As its name suggests, 15 Tridents™ offers fifteen SwiftHits® instant jackpots that can be triggered in both the base game and the free spins game by landing SwiftHits® Tridents symbols. SwiftHits® jackpots range from 1.25x to 10,000x total stake, depending on the number of SwiftHits® symbols that trigger them. Landing 15 SwiftHits® Trident symbols would trigger the grand jackpot and 10,000x times your bet.

In a market with hundreds of game studios, what would you say is PearFiction’s biggest differentiator?

At PearFiction, we try to give each game a personality, a story that it can tell, a mark that bears the PearFiction seal. The main thing we strive for in our games is to create a satisfying gameplay experience by combining humor, amazing artwork, depth of features, and a high level of survivability.

We often talk about the players and the road leading to the bonus game. Our goal is to make that journey as varied and thrilling as possible. The bonus is just one part of the game; players should be entertained and engaged while spinning and waiting for that potential bonus.

 We would love to hear more about the game creation process. Can you let us know which is the most exciting part of the entire process when creating a new title?

As I mentioned earlier, we try to develop games that have personality – games that have a story. We are always looking for ways to incorporate particular game mechanics and features into the game stories. In my opinion, that’s the most creative, fun stage of the process. It starts with an idea and then you see all the pieces of the story and the game features start to come together.

It might sound cliché, but it’s with a great team that you make great games. Kudos to our phenomenal team of mathematicians, developers, artists, and managers that are trying to make each game “Pearfect!” 

How can you tell if an online game is going to be a hit or not?

There is no way to guarantee that a game will be a hit, a blockbuster, or just do well. Even if the math, mechanics, theme, illustrations, and animations are all perfect, there are so many things that can influence a game’s performance. New trends, new features, launch date and seasons, operators pick up, and with more and more games coming out each month, it’s hard to predict how successful a game will be.

 What has been your biggest challenge and your most significant success in the gambling industry?

Finding talented people with slot experience in Montreal is our biggest challenge. We are one of about three studios that develop online casino games in Montreal. We are looking for people with a strong personality and a passion for developing casino games. If you’re a slot nerd looking for an opportunity to raise the bar, please apply!

The fact that we’ve released three successful games within our first year must be our greatest achievement to date. I am incredibly proud of the PearFiction team, everyone is so amazing.

If you weren’t in the gambling industry, what other industry would you want to work in?

If it couldn’t be iGaming, it would have to be the video gaming industry. Particularly developing mobile games, as it truly is a creative and fun place to evolve with so much room to push the creativity bar. For now, I’d like to stay where I am; we’re having loads of fun and I’m incredibly excited to see where PearFiction goes next!

Thanks for your time today. If any of your readers would like to find out more or follow our journey, they can keep updated at pearfiction.com.

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