A patron walking into any casino has a myriad of choices when choosing a slot game. There are volatile slots that yield huge jackpots, time-honored franchises that have devoted followings, and games that dazzle with impressive graphics and sound.
Then there are the games that evoke a sense of the past. It seems nostalgia, whether it’s for The Wizard of Oz, Wheel of Fortune or some other distant echo of a person’s experiences, keeps game designers plumbing the past for their next big slot game.
“It’s a way to connect with people who have fond memories from years ago and now you can experience that same nostalgia on a slot machine,” says Light & Wonder Director of Product Management Brett Colbert during an interview with CDC Gaming. “It’s all about remembering good times, whether it’s your favorite movie, character, book or show. Both the visuals and the music play a part in stimulating that part of the brain.”
Personalities (Dean Martin, Dolly Parton), game shows (Wheel of Fortune, Press Your Luck) and movies and TV shows (Jumanji, Game of Thrones) can influence design.
“Nostalgia can often be an important element to slot design, as it’s one of many factors that can enhance a game’s entertainment value for players,” says IGT VP Global Brand Licensing and Social Casino Jennifer Fales.
But it’s not as simple as slapping a brand on a game. There is exhaustive research into how a game will resonate with players before a manufacturer decides to negotiate with a rights holder of a brand.
That means “extensive market research and player testing to ensure the third-party brands that we bring into our portfolio will resonate with players and align with the core demographic of slot players,” says Fales. “In doing that research, we often ask what drives game affinity, and nostalgia can often top that list.
“For example, many slot players have fond memories of watching the Wheel of Fortune TV show in their homes or playing the slots with other family members. Similarly, players often associate Whitney Houston’s music with fun eras in their personal lives.”
Kelly Koffler, a casino game influencer and content creator who runs the YouTube channels Casino Kelly and Beyond Blackjack, said when she started playing slots, she was drawn to games with familiar themes such as Deal or No Deal and Sex and the City.
“Now, I am just drawn to the fun factor,” Koffler said. “If it’s fun, I’m in.”
Koffler notes that she enjoyed playing games based on the movies Ted and The Mask because they were engaging. According to Tashina Lazcano, Konami Gaming Director of Marketing & Communications, the most successful games “have some sort of unique and engaging interplay between the IP and game mechanics in a way that players can understand them and make sense of them.”
“It’s easier said than done,” Lazcano adds, “because there’s a lot of constraints behind the development of a game. You have technical standards, you have math considerations, and being able to deploy that in a unique concept and communicate it on the floor in a way that a player can look at it and understand what’s going on is very challenging.”
Konami is introducing a series of slots based on vintage TV game shows, including Family Feud, Beat the Clock and Card Sharks. Lazcano says the feedback the company received at meeting prior to last year’s Global Gaming Expo in Las Vegas has been positive.
“When players play this game, they can spin giant wheels, they can answer trivia to similar to TV game shows, race against time,” Lazcano says. “It has some recognizable personalities like Betty White, and a lot of video footage from these TV game shows, plus a lot of features that are popular today, including cash on reels, free spins jackpot bonuses, re-spins and multipliers. We’ve packed a lot into this game to try to appeal to both the nostalgia for the vintage video IP as well as give players some of the slot bonuses and features that we know are popular today.”
But nostalgia-themed games not only draw from celebrities and shows, but also experiences. Fales says IGT interviews players who are attracted to a particular for its nostalgic qualities.
“Nostalgia is not always limited to a licensed property,” Fales said. “For example, IGT themes such as Pinball, Wolf Run and Cleopatra remain some of the strongest IP in our proprietary portfolio. We continue to iterate and evolve these brands, but many players say they are attracted to these games for their comfort level and familiarity with the theme.”
Colbert said nostalgia might pique a person’s interest, but what matters most are the game’s mechanics.
“The math has to be top-notch,” Colbert says. “There are plenty of nostalgia-based themes every year that go nowhere. It must be something that players are interested in, and it has to align with the gameplay and aesthetics of modern slots.
“Players might want to see familiar themes, but they want to play the newest games,” Colbert adds. “When you can combine the familiarity of a theme like Wizard of Oz with clean game mechanics and good math, that’s where the sweet spot is.”
