Could you start by introducing the studio and detailing your role at Infinity Dragon, and sharing how your journey in the iGaming industry began?
The studio is six years old and have a diverse team brimming with ideas and creativity coming from the entertainment and gambling industries with some members previously working for the likes of Aristocrat and Disney, so we are well-versed in delivering captivating experiences.
I am Head of Studio at Infinity Dragon and my first foray into the world of gaming was in mobile, and from there I went into skill-based gaming and then into iGaming. In addition to me ensuring all of our staff have the support and direction they need to flourish, I oversee the production pipeline of the content we deliver which brings different challenges every day.
What was the inspiration behind setting the studio up and in what areas do you believe you excel?
Because of our presence in Australasia, our first focus was in those markets, and we especially wanted to conquer the Asian markets That region however, faces challenges with distribution and unique player trends that have come out of Japan, SEA and other areas.
We then decided to change course and develop games for the European and North American markets. This embodies the backgrounds of our founders, who have expertise in delivering engaging entertainment and high volatility games with excellent math models which was the inspiration for our studio tagline of ‘big entertainment and big maths.
Our passion is really to deliver medium to high volatility games, coupled with compelling storytelling and characters.
What emerging technologies are you looking forward to integrating into your slot games? How do you envision these technologies will enhance the player experience?
We have incorporated AI tools into our pipelines to accelerate production. The use of DALL-E, Midjourney for art have been quite transformative from a conceptualization standpoint.
For players, we have looked at pseudo-gambling game genres, skill-based features and dynamic math models, all of which are a bit of a challenge at the moment, given the regulatory environments but we are very invested continuous R&D as these change and hopefully become more innovation friendly to new game designs and ideas.
What are your top slot games at Infinity Dragon, and what unique features make them stand out in terms of player engagement and experience?
Gates of Asgard was launched in March this year and was a Viking-themed game that included the Power Combo feature, expanding reels, instant collect and multipliers. The game also boasted a one-shot stepper which could be triggered and give players a spin to guarantee access to the Link&Win™ game or win cash and bonus prizes. It proved to be a popular mix of features with players.
3 Blazing Volcanoes is an iteration of Gates of Asgard and is also a Power Combo game. The energetic Tiki volcano theme brings players explosive wins and has a great soundtrack that really lends itself to players to getting into the rhythm of the game. We took out the one-shot stepper feature and replaced that with a deeper free spins experience with more scatters, so when you get into the free spins, not only are you winning cash, but you are collecting more scatters into the Power Combo meters, upping the chances of players getting into the Link&Win™ feature by about 30% and thus really supercharging the win potential.
As you develop games, how do you ensure they capture player engagement uniquely? Can you discuss any specific game developed with market expansion in mind?
We always look at the experience for players in the first 10-20 spins, which really comes down to the base game and the personality of the theme. We work hard to maximise the early experiences to ensure our games are entertaining and fun.
A lot of our games have base game modifiers and players are often chasing collects that feed feature trigger meters like power combos or Free Spin modifiers, which are exciting because they unlock multi-layered features. And if the players hit all these feature modifiers at once, it could mean some really big wins. So, collectability and progression design are really important to us, and we tend to also bring our feature hit rates in closer than games you’d play in land-based casinos for example. Between those early spins and the feature chase, the first 100 to 150 or so spins are important.
Can you share with us some details about your upcoming launch Bears Make Bank?
We try to infuse as much personality as possible into our games and align the storytelling and math. I feel like the team really nailed this pairing in Bears Make Bank, which is one of my favourite games to date.
It is a zany, funny adventure centred around three bears that each have unique personalities and together rob banks. It is a Power Combo Link&Win™ game and we have introduced a brand-new feature called Multi boost which sees the Link&Win™ feature split up into zones with each one having a multiplier attached to it. This provides the players with a nice mini chase as they try to hit the multipliers in each zone, and there is more excitement in the form of a piggy symbol which can upgrade the zone multipliers by up to 10x. We have not seen this feature in iGaming before and hope players love it as much as we do.
These latest games have new characters at the centre of them, can you tell us about the inspiration behind these characters and how they came to be?
The market is becoming a bit flooded with archetypal themes and so we are trying to steer away from these classic themes where possible. Bears Make Bank really stemmed from our desire to think somewhat outside the box and deliver something different.
We took inspiration from other games that we saw, ones that were filled with personality, likeable characters that interact with the reels and this underpins Bears Make Bank.
Which game(s) from Infinity Dragon Studios are you most proud of? What elements do you think have contribute to its/their success among players?
Gods and Pyramids was a nice shift for the studio. We pulled together our art style for the European market and really nailed that aspect. The game had some unique features in free spins as well like our Growing Wilds, which was a bit of a shift for us from a design and mechanic perspective. This was also the foundation that we have built our art direction on as we felt we lacked something there.
Primarily being based in Australasia, we had a challenge in adapting our content for other audiences and regions. We felt we were on the right track but looking a little deeper, there were still Asian nuances to our themes, which didn’t really work for European players especially. Gods and Pyramids was an important step in aligning our design to really appeal to those players.
Gates of Asgard was important from a functional point of view. We have reiterated this game engine and the feature set with improvements into 3 Blazing Volcanoes and Bears Make Bank, and so this was important in creating a mix of Link&Win™ features that could be innovated and evolved into new games to give players even more exciting experiences and drive better engagement and other KPIs.
In the context of high-stakes games, how does Infinity Dragon promote responsible gaming and player safety?
Our games are designed with all the various regulations in mind and fully comply with each region’s laws. Generally, we make sure we are not doing anything that is going to contrive the experience and ensure the players understand the game rules, how to play, and what the key chase is. Given we are generally high volatility, our titles tend to have fairly low max bets, which is becoming more of a focus for various regulated markets and so potentially also a positive for player safety.
From your perspective, how do you predict whether a new game will be a hit? What key factors do you consider during its development?
It can be very tough to create an outstanding hit and you need to get the fundamentals right to give yourself the best possible opportunity. The theme, the math model, and the player experience all need to be right and even then there’s no guarantees as there are so many other factors at play, including timing, competition and marketing. We take a very measured approach and look at our metrics as they are usually good indictors of a game’s potential early on, and then it’s just really about trying to get as many operators behind the game as possible so we maximise the number of players able to play the game.
It goes without saying that we always think our next title will be a smash, but it’s rarely the case and we tend to produce consistently good games, rather than the big hits you see from studios like Mahi for example. We have high hopes for Bears Make Bank so let’s see!
Looking ahead, what exciting new developments or major releases can players anticipate from Infinity Dragon Studios?
We have a Zeus-themed game called Zeus Lighting Riches which is an iteration of Bears Make Bank. This will be our first Zeus title and we are excited to see how players react to the innovations we have made from Bears Make Bank. The theme is so much fun and the creative team really did an amazing job of adding thunder and lightning elements to the various features like Link&Win™, instant collect and much more, making it a game that is filled with energy and excitement.
In November, we are also planning to launch Gladiator Spoils of Victory, a reskin of the hugely popular Unusual Suspects from our friends at Northern Lights. The Gladiator 2 movie drops around the same time so there should be lots of interest in the theme and we’re excited to really ship something super fun for fans of the genre.
Before we conclude, what message would you like to share with the supporters of Infinity Dragon Studios?
Of course, we’d like to say a big thank you to all our fans who engage with our content and enjoy playing. We don’t take any player’s support for granted and our team are passionate about making the best games that we can. So, stay tuned for 2025!