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Howard Marks and Anthony Singer are co-founders and managing partners of High 5 Games. I first met Howard in 1999 when I interviewed him after reviewing Hasbro?s ?Howard Marks Presents Video Casino Games? software that included the Big E Poker, Pick 5 and Side Action 21 games. Since that first interview I have had the opportunity to speak to Howard on several occasions concerning new games, slot technology and mathematics.
When I called Howard to inquire if he would answer few questions about the process involved in creating a slot game he invited me to visit the company?s headquarters, which I quickly accepted.
Traffic was light on the morning I drove to High 5 Games and I arrived for the interview early. I thought that I may have to wait for awhile for some to show up, but I found that Anthony was already there working before the rest of the staff arrived. He welcomed me in to his office which also contains the conference table and acts as command central for their creative brainstorming sessions. He invited me to have a seat at the table and as I sat down I couldn?t help but notice that most of the available wall space on two of the office walls was filled with prints of the main screen from the different games they had created. These prints were just what the player would see when he sat down at one of the games. On the third wall was a large white drawing board the size of a chalkboard found in most school rooms.
On this board was drawings of symbols and cartoon characters I assumed might be ideas for a new game they are working on.
While we were alone I asked Anthony a question I would later ask Howard. ?Do you play your own slot games when you visit the casino??
He said, ?No, I don?t usually play them. By the time a game makes it to the casino floor I have already seen and played it in numerous forms of development. My real enjoyment comes from watching others play the game. There is great satisfaction seeing someone enjoying themselves playing a game that I helped create.?
When I asked Howard the same question later that day he also said he got the most enjoyment watching people play and listening to their comments about the games.
Howard and his son Dan arrived a few minutes later and joined me at the conference table. Howard Tony and Dan form High 5?s creative team and develop the initial ideas for the new games. Instead of a one on one interview, I actually had a round-robin discussion with the three of them for a couple hours. With this type of discussion it was hard to attribute the answer to my questions to a specific individual so I in most cases I will give you summary of the collective answer.
BB: What is the process for creating a new game?
H5G: The first process is to hold a creative idea session. These are usually held once a week but anyone of us can have an idea at anytime and bring it up for discussion. When an idea is suggested for a game we all have to like it. If the decision to pursue it is not unanimous then the idea is not necessarily dead but it is put away for another time. During the creative session we look at more than just ideas. We like to analyze exactly what the player does when they sit down to play. We then try to ?Think outside the Box? and come up with new concepts.
BB: Can you give me some example?
. H5G: Sure. The first thing a player does is sit down and put their money in the machine. He then hits the spin button. We asked why is there only one spin button? What would happen if there were more that one spin button? This question led to the development of Hot Hot Hot where a player can choose from three different spin buttons. Each button has a diver associated with it. If the bonus pearl shows up in the column under your diver, he dives down and collects the bonus. If it appears under one of the other two you don?t get anything. By offering a choice of spin buttons we have suddenly made the very simple function of hitting the spin button into an interactive part of the game.
Another decision a player has to make is how many lines to play for each spin. We asked ourselves what would happen if the player didn?t have to pick lines. What if they could pick a symbol instead of a line? This is how we came up with the Connect-a- Pay concept that we used for Big Top Circus where a symbol or number of symbols are chosen.
BB: Isn?t this like the old Buy-a-Pay game in the reel type machines?
H5G: Yes, in a way but by lining up adjacent symbols there are more winning combinations than if the player was just limited to choosing a line. Some machines offer 15 lines and many players will play at least one coin for each line. With our game a player picks up to 9 symbols and still has more opportunity for a winning combination with fewer coins played.
Howard Marks and Anthony Singer are co-founders and managing partners of High 5 Games. I first met Howard in 1999 when I interviewed him after reviewing Hasbro?s ?Howard Marks Presents Video Casino Games? software that included the Big E Poker, Pick 5 and Side Action 21 games. Since that first interview I have had the opportunity to speak to Howard on several occasions concerning new games, slot technology and mathematics.
When I called Howard to inquire if he would answer few questions about the process involved in creating a slot game he invited me to visit the company?s headquarters, which I quickly accepted.
Traffic was light on the morning I drove to High 5 Games and I arrived for the interview early. I thought that I may have to wait for awhile for some to show up, but I found that Anthony was already there working before the rest of the staff arrived. He welcomed me in to his office which also contains the conference table and acts as command central for their creative brainstorming sessions. He invited me to have a seat at the table and as I sat down I couldn?t help but notice that most of the available wall space on two of the office walls was filled with prints of the main screen from the different games they had created. These prints were just what the player would see when he sat down at one of the games. On the third wall was a large white drawing board the size of a chalkboard found in most school rooms.
On this board was drawings of symbols and cartoon characters I assumed might be ideas for a new game they are working on.
While we were alone I asked Anthony a question I would later ask Howard. ?Do you play your own slot games when you visit the casino??
He said, ?No, I don?t usually play them. By the time a game makes it to the casino floor I have already seen and played it in numerous forms of development. My real enjoyment comes from watching others play the game. There is great satisfaction seeing someone enjoying themselves playing a game that I helped create.?
When I asked Howard the same question later that day he also said he got the most enjoyment watching people play and listening to their comments about the games.
Howard and his son Dan arrived a few minutes later and joined me at the conference table. Howard Tony and Dan form High 5?s creative team and develop the initial ideas for the new games. Instead of a one on one interview, I actually had a round-robin discussion with the three of them for a couple hours. With this type of discussion it was hard to attribute the answer to my questions to a specific individual so I in most cases I will give you summary of the collective answer.
BB: What is the process for creating a new game?
H5G: The first process is to hold a creative idea session. These are usually held once a week but anyone of us can have an idea at anytime and bring it up for discussion. When an idea is suggested for a game we all have to like it. If the decision to pursue it is not unanimous then the idea is not necessarily dead but it is put away for another time. During the creative session we look at more than just ideas. We like to analyze exactly what the player does when they sit down to play. We then try to ?Think outside the Box? and come up with new concepts.
BB: Can you give me some example?
. H5G: Sure. The first thing a player does is sit down and put their money in the machine. He then hits the spin button. We asked why is there only one spin button? What would happen if there were more that one spin button? This question led to the development of Hot Hot Hot where a player can choose from three different spin buttons. Each button has a diver associated with it. If the bonus pearl shows up in the column under your diver, he dives down and collects the bonus. If it appears under one of the other two you don?t get anything. By offering a choice of spin buttons we have suddenly made the very simple function of hitting the spin button into an interactive part of the game.
Another decision a player has to make is how many lines to play for each spin. We asked ourselves what would happen if the player didn?t have to pick lines. What if they could pick a symbol instead of a line? This is how we came up with the Connect-a- Pay concept that we used for Big Top Circus where a symbol or number of symbols are chosen.
BB: Isn?t this like the old Buy-a-Pay game in the reel type machines?
H5G: Yes, in a way but by lining up adjacent symbols there are more winning combinations than if the player was just limited to choosing a line. Some machines offer 15 lines and many players will play at least one coin for each line. With our game a player picks up to 9 symbols and still has more opportunity for a winning combination with fewer coins played.
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