Julian Borg-Barthet, Chief Commercial Officer at Lady Luck Games, spoke with CasinoBeats this week about the company’s approach to game development and some of the techniques it applies to creating titles with the perfect theming and narrative.
CasinoBeats Could you introduce yourself and Lady Luck Games to our readers?
Julian Borg-Barthet: Founded in 2019 by Mads Jørgensen and Rasmus Guldberg-Kjær, Lady Luck Games launched with the perfect mix of creative forces, high-end technology and solid business knowledge. The studio stands out in the market thanks to our passion for detail and flair for entertainment that puts an emphasis on visuals, sound, mechanics and exciting bonus features.
Our technology is developed entirely in-house, delivering user-friendly, creative, and seamless games for the industry. To-date, our portfolio consists of 71 slot games and 12 casual casino games that we believe offer a fun and superior gaming experience.
In terms of my own working background, I have amassed a decade of experience in compliance testing and auditing in the gaming and lottery space. During this time, I was responsible for building the NMi Gaming brand into a market leader that covered 40 highly regulated jurisdictions.
Following my time at NMi (later GLI) I joined RISQ capital where I established the igaming insurance platform iGIP, the most versatile risk platform for prize backing with over 14 partners in gamification and jackpot platforms.
CB: What is the development process of a slot at Lady Luck Games, from idea to release?
JBB: We’re aware that the competition out there is incredibly high. Therefore, we try our utmost to deliver exciting and unique products. Our games take a village to create, as the saying goes … we always begin the process with a brainstorming session that includes the entire team.
These internal workshops allow us to not only perfect the theming and narrative of our games, but also allow us to be even more creative, thinking outside the box to deliver a top-class product. It’s during these sessions that our best work is done.
Once we’ve designed a polished game with extraordinary features and mechanics in place and we’re 100 per cent satisfied with the visuals we ensure that it has the right mathematical model, which is key to the game’s future success.
As a young studio we don’t always follow industry trends. We build games that allow players to experience special features in a single session, but we also ensure there will still be something left for them to work towards next time they play. This is our take on developing a new game.
CB: Apart from slots, do you produce other types of games?
JBB: We have 83 titles in total, 12 of which are casual casino games. These were added to our portfolio after acquiring Spigo in September of last year. These casual casino games are defined by having both elements of skill and chance, with multiplayer functionality, customisable design, tournament features and a long engagement time.
Our most popular titles are Battleship, Yatzy, Hearts, Black Gammon, Solitaire 7, and Diamonds. We adopted these types of games into our portfolio because they stand out in their own category, offering something completely different to a player profile which we may have never had a chance to entertain with a slot game.
CB: Can you tell us more about The Treasures of Tizoc slot and what players can expect from this release?
JBB: Players can expect a lot of fun! The Treasures of Tizoc is a six-reel, 15,625 ways to win slot that takes players back in time to a world of mystic Aztec pyramids and secret treasures.
The Treasures of Tizoc is packed with marvellous features, such as a various combination of wilds, gargoyles, re-spins, shifting reels and coin collections. The real treat here is the bonus round, which sees players able to grab cash prizes and should the charmed dice be on their side.
Additionally, this is our very first game to include a bonus buy feature, meaning players will have the opportunity to buy their way into the bonus round should they wish! The max win in this incredible slot is up to 15,500x the player’s stake. As always, we did our best to deliver both high entertaining values, stunning graphics, and great music.
CB: And what about the Valholl: Wild Hammers slot? What was your inspiration and development process for this game?
JBB: After the great success of our first Nordic-inspired slot, Valholl: Hall of the Slain, we made the decision to revisit this and produce an even more exciting game, Valholl: Wild Hammers.
This new, upgraded version of Valholl has six reels and 20-paylines, stunning graphics, great music, and a whole host of gripping features. Two hammers take the leading role, each able to trigger one of three features.
Wild Lightning sees the entire reel turn into wild symbols, Loki’s Mischiefs sees the two symbols converted into the highest paying of the two. The Wild Hammers Free Spins sees players rewarded with 10 free spins, during which hammers will shoot lighting onto the reels converting symbols into sticky wilds.
Again, this slot boasts a buy feature which means players can choose to trigger Loki`s Mischiefs or Wild Hammers Free Spins whenever they wish. Max win in this game is 17,000x the player’s stake.
CB: Another game that caught our attention is the Madame Clues slot, which features a fortune-telling ball. Can you tell us more about this slot?
JBB: Madame Clues is a truly unique slot we released at the start of 2022 that’s since received industry-wide recognition for how innovative it is. Only recently it was nominated in two categories for a CasinoBeats award.
This exciting slot is set in the arcade of an abandoned amusement park where players are invited to step up to the crystal ball of Madame Clues, a mysterious fortune teller who can predict the future.
The mechanics of this game are straightforward, as there are only single symbol wins. That means that every time a paid symbol appears on the reel (Madame Clues’ crystal ball), players are rewarded with an instant cash prize.
The game is packed with incredible features, such as the Look Deeper Bonus, which can see up to 64 symbols on screen at once thanks to the symbol splitter mechanic. Another exciting bonus is the Free Spins Round, triggered by revealing an Owl symbol. The maximum win in Madame Clues is 23,040x the player’s stake.
CB: What Lady Luck Games release are you most proud of?
JBB: It’s very difficult to choose just one game that really stands out from the crowd. Some of our top performing games include The Treasures of Tizoc, Valholl, Weight of the Guns and Mr Alchemister. We’ve also developed several titles that cater for a modern audience, offering something different. These include Madame Clues and Rooftop Fight, which really does showcase just how diverse our games portfolio is.
CB: What releases can we expect from Lady Luck Games in the upcoming months? Can you give us some insider info?
JBB: Last December we signed a three-year co-development and distribution agreement with King Features Syndicate. This collaboration is extremely beneficial for Lady Luck Games and will help us gain even more recognition within the industry. The deal sees us work on new games based on iconic cartoon characters such as iconic strongman Popeye.
