This presentation will take the audience behind the scenes of social casino game development from a project management perspective. There will be specific focus on agile and lean methods in the game development environment. Ulyana will also discuss: arranging a development environment which boosts creativity, bringing multiplayer mode and social features to classic single-player games, adjusting games to suit different cultures, languages, platforms and target audiences and last; the Golden Reels experiment – how to recycle your assets and make some money.

1. An Iterative Approach to the Development
and Distribution of Social Casino
Ulyana Krystaszek
Product Owner

2. Focused on
synchronous
multiplayer
games for most
of our existence
60+ people
and
growing
Social
casino,
arcade and
skill games
Online
gaming
company
Founded
10+ years
ago
Office in
Krakow
city center

3. 39 M
Registered users
3.1 M
Active users per month
70k
DAU

4. 4
Slot in Slots — how it started
Slot in Slots — how it started
Goal:
ernrich company portfolio
with 5-reel slots game
Threats:
highly-competitive market
of social casino
Our approach:
deliver minimum viable product
(MVP) and plan next actions
according to feedback received

5. 5
MVP AND
BEYOND
Releasing basic functionality, with
minimum features set (3 machines and
social features).
Collecting data, and adjusting next releases
to results and observations of players
behavior
Releasing next features as soon as possible,
to see the impact
Decisions: data driven vs. intuition
Balancing from different sources of
inspirations

6. 6
BACKLOG
INSPIRATIONS:
Minimum features set (MVP,
“Minimum awesome product”)
Market situation
Industry standards
Company strategy/stakeholders
Team vision / Tasks, motivating for
developers
Players feedback

7. Graphics
adjusted to
different cultures
Various platforms
- various types of
players (casual,
hardcore, etc)
Prices adjusted
to purchase
power of local
market
Mobile vs. Web,
adjust both UI &
game design
AND MORE INSPIRATIONS: ADAPTATION

8. ADAPTATION: MOBILE

9. ADAPTATION: MOBILE LOBBY

10. ADAPTATION: MACHINES UNLOCKS

11. ADAPTATION: MACHINES ORDER

12. 12
IDEAS ARE
USELESS
UNTIL USED One Big idea < lots of small ideas
Once you come up with idea, you can't tell
if it's good or bad, you are still the creator
Ship it and see how it's received
Do it often, and create environment
appropriate for iterative cycle

13. 13
FAIL FAST,
FAIL OFTEN
Failure = learning
Enable fast and smooth releases
(continuous integration)
Being agile ≠ not having a plan
Operations and responsibilities inside of
the team
Recovering from failures (postmortems,
retrospectives)

14. A/B tests,
staged roll-out
Ownership releases responsibility
(cross-functional team)
Players feedback
(read between the lines)
Do not over-invest your time
HOW IT WORKS FOR US

15. 15
A/B TESTS
”ADD COINS” BUTTON

16. 16
A/B TESTS
MOBILE SHOP

17. 17
Bring innovation, by adding
multiplayer mode to classic single-
player game; interesting for both
Slots and Bingo players
TRUE STORY#1. BINGO SLOTS
Mission:
Slots with elements of Bingo
Solution:

18. 18
BINGO SLOTS: HOW IT WORKS

19. 19
BINGO SLOTS:
HOW IT WORKS
Players joins one of three “rooms” with
different bets
All players in one room see same
machine
Players can add up to 5 coupons
Coupons have patterns, that need to be
filled
Symbols on reels have numbers too, and
once paylines are hit, numbers are
scored on coupon
First one to score all 5 numbers on
coupon and claim and claim “Bingo” wins

20. 20
BINGO SLOTS:
LESSONS LEARNED
Adding totally new gameplay to typical
slots maybe not a very best idea
Machine interesting for rather small
niche
Assets later re-used in next project
System of “multiple players on one
machine” later used in tournaments
Was fun to work on, change of focus for
the team

21. 21
introduce more casino-inspired
elements; create place for high-rollers to
spend their coins; give unique content
for current players; see how fast we can
release new machine.
TRUE STORY#2. GOLDEN REELS
Mission:
Golden Reels - machine, using graphics,
created for Bingo Slots, offering free
spins powered by “Lucky Tickets”
Solution:

22. 22
GOLDEN REELS : HOW IT WORKS

23. 23
GOLDEN REELS:
HOW IT WORKS
Machine is offering higher and more
frequent wins, than others
Players are not spending coins from their
account, but wins are added
Lucky Ticket type offer various basic bets
Lucky Tickets can be purchased, but as
well can be received for free in some
community-management activities

24. 24
GOLDEN REELS:
LESSONS LEARNED
Sometimes your MVP can be really
minimum
or “how to recycle your assets and make
some money on it”
Cross-functional team is a bless, ideas
coming from everywhere
We basically added other, more
interactive option to purchase coins.

25. 25
create social features, set deeply in
the core gameplay; empower
players communication connected
to game outside of the game.
TRUE STORY#3: POWER-UPS AND CASHBACKS
Mission:
Power-ups, boosting gameplay
distributed via viral channels,
including mutual appreciation
system for sender and receiver.
Solution:

26. 26
POWER-UPS: HOW IT WORKS

27. 27
POWER-UPS: HOW IT WORKS
Player receive power-up from their friend, use it on the machine,
and once they win, players friend, who sent power-up, will receive some coins.

28. 28
POWER-UPS:
LESSONS LEARNED
Players would come back to spin with
friends power-ups and send cashbacks
Interactive gifts, requiring investment of
time, are more appreciated
Social pressure of not sending cashback
Community building&beta-testers aspect
can't be underestimated

29. ukrystaszek@ganymede.eu
THANKS FOR WATCHING