In an industry where hundreds of slot games launch every year, new studios face an immediate challenge: how to stand out without simply repeating what already works. One of the newest entrants hoping to do exactly that is Hold Your Hat, a startup studio founded by industry veterans with more than two decades of experience in game development.
Their debut release, Cooked, immediately caught attention for its unusual mechanics and playful design philosophy. Curious about the thinking behind the game and the studio itself, we spoke with Daniel Klangefeldt (Chief Commercial Officer) and Lars Rustemeier (Co-founder and Chief Architect) at Hold Your Hat.
In this Q&A, he shares insights into the studio’s philosophy, why the team deliberately avoided playing it safe with their debut, and how they plan to carve out a space in one of the most competitive corners of the gaming industry.
Bigwinboard (Daniel): Hi guys, thanks for sitting down with us. Always interesting to see new studios emerge. Hold Your Hat enters a crowded and highly competitive slot market. What’s the core idea behind the studio, and what gap are you trying to fill?
Hold Your Hat: Hi Daniel, nice to meet you. At the heart of Hold Your Hat is the belief that innovation has to be intentional. The slot market is undeniably crowded and many games compete on similar themes, features, and presentation styles. For us, the goal isn’t just to add another title to that pile, the goal is to create new experiences, through thoughtful innovations. That’s where we believe we can make a difference.
Bigwinboard (Daniel): Quality over quantity, that’s something this industry needs more of for sure. As a team made up of industry veterans, what lessons from the past 20+ years shaped your approach to launching a new studio in 2026?
Hold Your Hat: Earlier in our careers, we sometimes believed that expertise alone guaranteed success. We’d think, “We’ve done this before. We know what works.” But the lesson learned is that the game is constantly changing, even if we think we have made the perfect game, if the players reject it, it is crap.
We didn’t start this studio thinking we had all the answers. Over two decades, trends change, platforms evolve, and audiences become more vocal and more influential. Experience is valuable, but it only matters if you stay open to learning.
Bigwinboard (Daniel): Many new studios debut with something relatively safe but you went in another direction. Admittedly, this is also what caught our interest. Tell us more about your debut release Cooked.
Hold Your Hat: When we first started planning COOKED, we knew we didn’t want to simply play it safe. We chose to put our trust into our creativity from day one. We start out as a relatively small studio, which requires being careful with scope and resources. But we don’t play it safe. Our backlog of concepts is quite big. Some of the mechanics in the game came from experiments that were originally intended for entirely different projects. Over time, we realized they worked beautifully together. COOKED shows players how we think about design: playful systems, surprising interactions, and a willingness to experiment.
Bigwinboard (Daniel): Cooked scored 8 on Bigwinboard, with a 7 community score – strong numbers for a debut. How do you process feedback this early in your studio’s life?
Hold Your Hat: Proud and relieved but straight onto the next project.
“We rarely struggle with creativity, if anything, we have the opposite problem.”
Bigwinboard (Daniel): A few players have drawn comparisons to ELK Studios when playing Cooked. How would you describe your own design identity, and where do you feel it stands apart?
Hold Your Hat: Our design identity with Hold Your Hat is focused on taking our collective experiences and evolving them for a new era. We believe that culture is key, if innovation is a goal. You cannot force breakthroughs; you have to foster an environment where the “weird” ideas are given room to breathe. By building our own tech-stack from the ground up, we aren’t beholden to legacy constraints. It’s a fresh new take!
Bigwinboard (Daniel): Cooked kind of doesn’t rely on one obvious signature feature. Was that a deliberate decision to build depth rather than a single hook?
Hold Your Hat: That was absolutely a deliberate decision. We believe in depth over complexity. There’s a big difference between stacking features on top of each other and building systems that interact and create the possibility of emergent behavior. We didn’t want COOKED to rely on one obvious signature feature that overshadows everything else.
Our process tends to generate a lot of ideas. We rarely struggle with creativity, if anything, we have the opposite problem. The challenge becomes a matter of discipline. Just because a mechanic is exciting doesn’t mean it fits in the final product. We constantly ask ourselves: does this add to the experience, or does it just dilute the game?
Bigwinboard (Daniel): The industry often leans heavily on established formulas. How do you intend to balance innovation with familiarity to avoid alienating players?
Hold Your Hat: It’s a delicate balance. The gaming industry leans on established formulas because it is the safest route. However, relying completely on those established tropes leads to stagnation. Our design philosophy is rooted in the understanding that players award innovation, as long as you do not go overboard. A lesson we have learned the hard way.
Bigwinboard (Daniel): Beyond mechanics, how important is tone and personality in your games? Is building a recognizable style part of the long-term plan?
Hold Your Hat: Tone and personality are hugely important to us. When features connect to characters or narrative, they feel more intentional and immersive. It doesn’t need to be overly complicated storytelling. We’re not chasing a rigid formula, but we do want players to sense a certain attitude when they open one of our games. There’s also a practical side to it: it’s simply easier to work if it is fun, together in the same office. When the team connects with the humor and the concept, the creative energy is different. Ideas flow more naturally, collaboration improves, and the end result usually feels more alive.
So yes, building a recognizable style is absolutely part of the long-term plan, not by repeating ourselves, but by consistently delivering games with strong personality, clear identity, and a touch of character-driven charm.
“The ambition isn’t to repeat ourselves, it’s to keep surprising players.”
Bigwinboard (Daniel): If players were to describe Hold Your Hat in one sentence three years from now, what would you want that sentence to be?
Hold Your Hat: If we can be known for creating experiences with depth but without unnecessary complexity, for bringing new mechanics to the table and for wrapping it all in strong personality and a lot of humor, then we’ve done our job.
Bigwinboard (Daniel): What’s the one thing you refuse to compromise on, even if it would make a game more commercially safe?
Hold Your Hat: Games that thematically take place in the old Greek mythos of The Olympus, with characters like Zeus, Athena, Apollo etc. We have tried and failed so hard that I honestly don’t want to go down that road again. Old Greek mythos seems to be our kryptonite.
Bigwinboard (Daniel): Looking ahead, what should players and operators expect from Hold Your Hat over the next year – refinement of your debut formula or something entirely different?
Hold Your Hat: Looking ahead, players and operators can absolutely expect new game concepts, not just variations of the same ideas. We have a strong backlog of ideas we’re eager to explore. You can expect some really whacky themes. We enjoy playing with tone and contrast, mixing the unexpected with solid design underneath.
That balance is something we plan to explore even more. The ambition isn’t to repeat ourselves, it’s to keep surprising players.
