Founded by David Little and Peter Causley in 2004, Lightning Box Games is a multi-channel slot studio with a presence online and off. While the unique brand of slot games is known to draw crowds in North American land-based casinos, the games have started to generate an electrifying online buzz across the pond. Where did it all begin? What does YouTube have to do with their new slot features? We chased Mr. Little down to find out more about the company, future plans, the latest game, Panda Pow and more.
1. When the company was founded in 2004, there was a focus on the land-based casino sector, right? How did you eventually make the move into the online gaming space?
We formed Lightning Box in partnership with IGT in 2004, with the aim of creating exclusive video slot content for them in the North American market. We did that for four years then wanted to spread our wings and supply other people. The market had also changed in the wake of the global financial crisis among other things, and online was really taking off. We knew there was a thirst for our games, and players who enjoyed them in the land-based environment would enjoy playing them on their PCs, tablets, and phones. We secured our first online gaming deal with Chartwell in 2009 and haven’t looked back. Our integration with NYX, in particular, has opened the door to the Nordics, and we now supply casinos like SlotsMillion, Mr Green, LeoVegas, and Unibet. We’re doing more and more in the UK market too, and will shortly have two slots live in William Hill’s shops. Producing proper multi-channel content is what we’re about at Lightning Box.
2. How many of the land-based games are available online and are they modified in any way?
The majority of our latest land-based games are now available online too. We’ve found there is an unquenchable demand for land-based style slots on there. I guess that’s because a lot of the new suppliers are online only and have a certain style of game. That’s fine – and has its place. But we offer something different. A style that land-based players now moving online appreciate, but also something that people who’ve never set foot in an actual casino can appreciate too. It’s very important to have a mixture of games these days to have broad appeal. The online games are essentially 80-90% the same as the land-based ones. The trick is knowing what 10-20% to tweak – but my lips are sealed as that is very much part of our secret gravy!
3. Which games were among the first releases and how do they differ from what your team is developing today?
Angels Touch slot was our first online release, back in 2010. This game was extremely volatile and players had to be very patient in waiting for the bonus. When it did arrive, there were rich rewards. It would have been an extreme game even for land-based casinos at the time, to be honest, but it had its fair share of fans. We don’t tend to go to those extremes anymore, but higher volatility still remains a hallmark of our games. That goes down particularly well with land-based players migrating online, and in the UK market. But it also gives Nordic-facing operators an alternative in their portfolios, which tend to have a higher proportion of lower volatility games. Again, it’s about providing variety. It would have been an extreme game even for land-based casinos at the time, to be honest, but it had its fair share of fans.
4. Tell us about the upcoming release of Panda Pow.
Pow, Pow…Pow, Pow, Pow. It’s a fun game, get into it! It’s a bit more light-hearted, as you may have guessed, along the lines of our Astro Cat game. It uses a similar math model as Chilli Gold, but with a much lower buy-in to the feature. I think people will enjoy the martial artist panda for a kick-off, and the cute soundtrack, but the maths will keep them coming back. We’ve got high hopes for the little black and white fella!
5. On average, how many games do you release per year?
We target around eight, but this is dependant of what ideas we come up with and how many games we cull during development. The overall priority is to release games that we are happy with, rather than release a set number of games. I think it’s fine sticking to a set number of games and having a delivery road-map. But I’d much rather ditch a few that are not 100 per cent up to scratch then hit the delivery target with games we know are inadequate. You always know that some people will like some games more than others, and you can’t please all of the people all of the time. But you can give games the very best chance by making sure they don’t leave the studio half-baked. There’s plenty of competition out there and you can’t afford to slip up.
6. Slot features like the Reelfecta Super Reel found in Astro Cat are really engaging. How was this created and what other game features are unique to Lightning Box Games?
You’re going to laugh, but the Reelfecta Super Reel bonus came from watching cat videos on YouTube! There were cats on there rolling around chasing each other’s tales and we thought this would be a good bonus, as daft as that now sounds. The Stellar Jackpot Bonus is another unique feature we have. This is on three of our online games now and will also be released on two land-based games later this year.
7. What can we expect to see from you guys in the future?
Possibly more YouTube inspired games – watch this space! We have some interesting new maths models in development and get those right before we work out the themes. The themes can come from anywhere but are usually straight out of leftfield. We appreciate they’re important and like to make them as immersive as possible. But as maths geeks at heart, we know it’s the game under the graphics that makes the biggest impact. Get that right and you’re half-way to a hit.