Nightmaker

Nightmaker: Slot Overview

People tend to naturally find their tolerable sector of the broad spectrum of horror, from light, giggle-inducing nothingness to catatonic terror, turning away from topics which are just a little too much. So it is in slots, which are very rarely, if ever, actually scary but do occasionally dip into darker subject material. One studio that's not particularly famous for picking spooky topics is Swedish software provider ELK Studios, but the team has, for whatever reason, thrown on thick, heavy robes to have a dabble via the online slot Nightmaker.

An Iron Throne without all the swords greets players as the game loads before plunging them into a rather creepy place. If, when you hear the words 'ELK Studios', you think of pirate birds or snorting cartoon bulls, you might need to make a perception adjustment because Nightmaker is a dark place indeed. The gaming grid sits within a bizarre tunnel of ridged objects, like something H. R. Giger might have designed to use in an Alien movie while possessing a number of fiendish references. The music is just as eerie, too, forlorn even, as if a battle has been lost before it's even begun, and vultures are already circling overhead.

Nightmaker's gaming area is pretty interesting too. It consists of 5 columns of symbols, landing by default in a 3-5-5-5-3 configuration with a feature row sitting on the top. This alignment produces 1,125 ways to win, rising to 3,125 when the four corner positions are unlocked and even higher when symbols are split - up to 25,000. A monster potential slot is driven by a highly volatile math model pushing out ELK Studios' go-to RTP of 94%. If that's not an issue, players are able to wager 20 c to $/€100 on each base game round.

Four esoteric markings are Nightmaker's low pay symbols, awarding 0.4x the bet for 5 OAK, and its high pays are three odd objects and a skull face symbol, paying 0.8x to 10x the bet for 5-of-a-kind. Wild symbols substitute any paying symbol, and a winning combination of only wilds has the same value as the top-paying symbol. Wilds are indestructible till they reach the bottom of the grid, then they are moved with the next win, including any wilds stacked on top of them. Winning symbols are removed from the grid after they have paid. Gravity drops symbols down to fill the gaps, and any used feature symbols respin. The game will repeat this process as long as new wins appear.

Nightmaker: Slot Features

The features to spin for in Nightmaker are cascades, big symbols, a feature row, a bonus game, a super bonus game, Beast Spins, and X-iter bonus buys.

Big Symbols

Any pay symbol can appear as a big 3x5 symbol on the middle three reels. Big symbols split into 15 1x1 symbols, and features apply to their respective columns. The rattle feature can trigger on any initial base game spin, awarding 1 to 3 big symbols.

Feature Row

Features on the feature row activate immediately and affect symbols in the affected column.

• Wild Spirit - effects 1-3 symbol positions, which can result in 1-6 wild symbols on the top positions of the affected columns. If there are already wilds or scatters in top positions, wilds are added to the next available positions from the top and spawned wilds get the multiplier of the symbol they replace. Wild Spirit keeps wild symbols indestructible for 1 additional win.
• Symbol Multiplier - adds a multiplier value to all symbols of the indicated type in the affected column. Wild symbol multipliers do not affect the jumping wild.
• Wildfire - triggers if there is a wild in the affected column, replacing all symbols on the column except scatters with wilds. The highest wild multiplier on the column will be added to all wild symbols on the column. A symbol with a higher multiplier will give that specific wild the higher multiplier value. Wildfire keeps wild symbols indestructible for 1 additional win.
• Split Symbols - splits all symbols except scatters on the affected column. Symbols can only be split once, and the maximum number of symbols on a column is 10.

Bonus Game

Landing 3 scatters in the base game awards 8 free spins. In the bonus game, one pay symbol is chosen to have a persistent multiplier attached to it. The four corners of the grid unlock for the round, increasing the number of ways to win. Landing a scatter in one of the corners awards +2 free spins, and the corner turns into a blocker.

Super Bonus Game

If one of the 3 triggering scatters is a super scatter, the super bonus is awarded instead. In this feature, the super bonus symbol becomes a jumping wild that moves to a new position after each win and between free spins. The jumping wild temporarily gets the current multiplier of the position it covers. Landing a super bonus symbol in one of the corners in the bonus game or super bonus game generates an extra jumping wild.

Beast Spins

Beast Spins are activated when scatters land in all four corners in the bonus game. During Beast Spins, only big symbols spin on the middle three reels.

X-iter

The X-iter allows players to buy into different game modes. Bonus Hunt costs 3x the bet and buys a game round with more than triple the chance of triggering the bonus game. Wild Spins at 10x the bet buy a game round landing at least 1 wild symbol, and a game round with guaranteed Beast Spins costs 100x. The bonus can be bought for 100x or the super bonus for 500x.

Nightmaker: Slot Verdict

A number of studios have produced gloomy, heavy slots such as Print Studios' Darkness, Red Tiger's Judgement Day Megaways, Bullshark Games' Empress of the Shadows, as well as numerous releases from Hacksaw Gaming. Now, ELK Studios has turned its attention to the dark side, and not a bad job it's done either if you like slots grim, heavy, and perilous. Not just thematically either, as the highly volatile math model isn't exactly here to be everyone's best chum, and despite packing a lot of bells and whistles, play can technically go in any direction.

This can be a good thing, though, because Nightmaker is a slot which feels like it's been wound tight, as if it's about to unleash at any moment. Any slot can, of course, but the particular combination of features, like splitting symbols and multipliers, combined with a lot of ways to win, produces an explosively on-edge feel. Exacerbating this effect is that lurking back there, in the shadows, getting up to all sorts of eldritch mischief is monstrous winning potential of 50,000x the bet. There are no max coins in this game either, so if, repeat if, the max win is ever achieved, it's going to be when Nightmaker pulls off straight reel-based trickery rather than dropping a jackpot-like symbol onto the board. One assumes Beast Spins have a part to play because of the way they can link so much of the gaming area, a bit like Dreadworks' Big Jack.

It all makes for rather compelling viewing, and ELK Studios' foray into bleaker-than-usual subject matter has paid off. Don't want to be that one guy, but it does help that a lot of what's here feels like it might have been inspired by some of Nolimit City's output - the splits, symbol multipliers, jumping wilds, the darkness, etc. Of course, NLC doesn't have a monopoly on that stuff, but blending it together the way Nightmaker has done so made it hard not to draw parallels. If it's not obvious by now, Nightmaker triggered memories of a number of prior slots from a variety of studios. But the positive thing to note is that most memories were from rock solid slots, of which Nightmaker can stand proudly amongst, being a well-made, spookily exciting horror(ish) game that can jump scare with the big, freaky hitters.