Following another successful 12 months of expansion, development and, most importantly, game launches, Bigwinboard sat down with Push Gaming’s Amit Samji, the creative juice behind some of Push Gaming’s most beloved titles and Principal Game Producer. We looked back at the studio’s jam-packed year of slot releases and got a tease of what to expect in 2023.
January – Bison Battle
Amit Samji: The year kicked off in beastly fashion with Bison Battle, a game that saw us launch a new mechanic, Bison Clash which was huge fun to create and also provided a challenge in its implementation. For example, how do we get bison symbols to stampede across the reels and give players the feeling of the strength of these beasts while also conveying the big win potential they hold.
This feature went through various iterations, and the final product gels the overall gameplay and design together. I also like the idea of building upon it and having symbols race across the reels and collide with each other in future titles. One to play around with in the future for sure. Read the Bison Battle review.
March – Nightfall
Amit Samji: Having a classic 5×3 real layout, Nightfall was influenced by the instant prizes the team had enjoyed from land-based casino titles. This means that players can see on the top row during any spin what they can win and what they are aiming for.
This serves well to demonstrate the potential each spin can have for players. The dark gothic theme of Nightfall was also one that we haven’t done before – it works in contrast to our more light-hearted slots and delivers a more serious tone – it was an area we enjoyed exploring. Read the Nightfall review.
May – Fat Banker
Amit Samji: The Fat series returned! With the release of Fat Banker, we wanted to align the game to other iterations of the franchise, continuing the growing wild aspect that has popularised the free spins round.
To set it apart from predecessors in the base game we added coins that you can collect. This was a fun feature to develop and one that only came into play after we had the theme set out, we wanted to introduce more opulence and money-based symbols. Read the Fat Banker review.
June – Big Bamboo
Amit Samji: One of our most successful games of the year! While some games take a while to take off and become popular, Big Bamboo saw incredible numbers from launch. Again, if you look at the mechanics in that game with the reveal feature, it’s basically an evolution from when we did Blaze of Ra – from that we did Tiki Tumble and evolved onto the hugely successful Razor Shark – all were really well received and we wanted to refresh and revisit those mechanics and deliver them to the player again. This is what we did with Big Bamboo.
The free game feature here is super-highly volatile and exciting where you can go into it at any level. Players enjoy the prizes coming in and landing and you don’t know if there will be a collector symbol or multiplier and it’s a mechanic that provides longevity in itself, never mind the whole game. Read the Big Bamboo review.
August – Mad Cars
Amit Samji: Feature-rich is how I would succinctly describe Mad Cars – especially with the bonus buy, the player can trigger a host of features. It was a big challenge for us during development with the Reel Race mechanic that made its debut here so we wanted to nail it. I’m happy that we did that and I feel it provides a lot of variety and scope.
We wanted to make the player come back time and again feeling that there’s more for them to discover. Mechanically, it’s a unique game in our portfolio and it’s something that we’ll probably revisit at some point. Read the Mad Cars review.
September – Deadly 5
Deadly 5 is somewhat of a departure for us in that it’s a lower-volatility game. We’ve kind of been in a comfort zone of mainly producing high-volatility titles and so we wanted to challenge ourselves and explore something outside of that. The theme and the gameplay were centred around players knowing exactly what they need to do from the very beginning.
It’s an accessible game and the expanding wild is an evergreen feature that we knew would translate well. It was also the first Western-themed game we’ve done, so another box ticked! Read the Deadly 5 review.
October – Space Stacks
Amit Samji: This was one of our curveballs! The last time I personally worked on a game from left field was Jammin’ Jars and we know how well that turned out! The Wild Jars mechanic was new to us at that time and we were excited to see how it developed and players grew an affinity for it.
Space Stacks was similar in this respect but we took it a step further with the three features that players will have seen elsewhere in the gambling world, we wanted to allow the player to be able to see the direct odds so they can shoot for the maximum win when playing. Read the Space Stacks review.
November – Mystery Mission: To the Moon
Amit Samji: This was conceived off the back of Mystery Museum, a game which was a bit of a slow burner that performed strongly the longer it was in the market and I put that down to the volatility.
The reel set here changed to 6×4, it gave the player retriggers and there was also a super-high paying symbol – these were the standout changes in the gameplay over its predecessor. It’s worked really well and has a good balance of action throughout the game. Read the Mystery Mission to the Moon review.
November – Retro Tapes
Amit Samji: This has been a brilliant release for us – anyone who’s a fan of Jammin’ Jars will definitely like this – it’s got the same feel to it, being colourful and attractive. We added the Magnet feature in the base game and bonus round, and I enjoyed the way it pulls in the instant prizes.
The main challenge for us in that game was trying to nail that spin – we tried all sorts in advance of launching it! This was an incredibly fun game to bring together, and the reception from players, streamers and affiliates has been amazing to see. Read the Retro Tapes review.
December – Generous Jack
Amit Samji: Generous Jack was the second curveball in our catalogue this year! I see a lot of potential in that kind of mechanic where what you see is what you win. That first came to me a few years ago from playing land-based games out in Vegas. And we took the basic premise and added a little more fun to proceedings by providing rows, where the player can increase their chances for bigger wins and feature triggers.
There’s really good potential here with wins always obvious to the player, they can see what’s spinning past and what could have been a great win or what can still be added to values to increase wins further. Read the Generous Jack review.
BWB: I know it’s like being asked to pick your favourite child, but which games were your personal favourites of the year?
Amit Samji: That’s tricky! But I can say that Big Bamboo was a standout for how well it has performed and how the players and the industry has reacted to it. In terms of putting something together as a developer, I would say Space Stacks, purely because I like a challenge. And that was something new to us. I think it was new to the market as well, and that naturally, held a lot of excitement in the development stage – I enjoyed working on it.
BWB: What are you looking forward to in 2023?
Amit Samji: There’s loads on the roadmap that I can’t talk about, of course, but I can say that we’ve got a lot of fan-favourite games over the years and players are going to see more of what they’ve loved in the past in terms of mechanics. Our first title for the new year is Giga Jar, a spin-off from our Jammin’ series and Push Gaming loves to evolve its greatest games, and we’re going to see more of that throughout the year.
