Synergy Blue’s slot machines stand out at the ICE London tradeshow as the only company with a completely skill-based product line.
While the Southern California-based company’s titles are skill-based at their core, the gambling aspect can be converted to pure chance-based formats through the company’s Hybrid Arcade Future-Based Gaming, or HAWG, software platform. This allows Synergy Blue the flexibility to be active across more jurisdictions.
“We’re trying to give more entertainment back to the players,” CEO Georg Washington said. “Most of our games we tone down in terms of difficulty compared to a normal video game, because they involve money. You’ve got to give players good value for their money and an entertaining experience, but you don’t want to make (the games) too challenging, because players will wind up losing too much money.”
According to Washington, the chances generally work out the same as any slot machine, but with a different feel and experience for the players.
Synergy Blue currently offers 19 gaming titles and had 10 on display during ICE. The majority of the company’s games are single-player, although Synergy Blue has found success with multiplayer in their driving game “Lucky Karts”.
“There are a lot of differences in every jurisdiction,” Washington said. “What we’ve tried to do with all our games is keep them simple and fun. Our tagline is ‘Arcade Gambling: Fun you can bet on.’ In the simplest terms, it’s a fun way of pushing the buttons.”
One of the games Synergy Blue is showcasing is Locked and Loaded. Like the company’s other games, the wagering functions similar to a slot machine. Wagers can be changed at any time, credits are constantly displayed onscreen, and the win is clearly shown.
However, the game is not operated by pushing buttons and the player is not sitting in a chair. The controller a plastic gun, and the wagers happen when the player shoots enemies who pop up as they travel through a three-dimensional Wild West town. Players must be skillful enough to complete the level and the more skill the player displays, the higher the odds. However high the odds may be, they never equate to the house losing money – on average, the player just gets more entertainment for their dollar.
Washington said the game is a combination of chance and skill. Some jurisdictions require a return to players of a certain percentage, and he said Synergy Blue was very mindful of that in crafting their HAWG, which is at the core of all the company’s games.
Next up was Lucky Karts, a popular title that helped Synergy Blue launch their brand.
In the kart racing game, which comes complete with arcade-quality steering wheel and foot pedals, each time a player picks up a coin on the track, a wager is made. Bonuses are randomly added and appear as gems. The player needs skill to pick up the gems because they aren’t always placed in the most convenient spot on the track.
Washington said the legal infrastructure isn’t quite ready in many jurisdictions to handle skill-based gaming, which has slowed the pace of rollout, especially in Europe.
Synergy Blue develops many of its games in-house, but also works with a Polish game development company, Orbital Knight. Orbital Knight has iOS games available on the Apple Store, including Kickerinho World, which has seen more than 5 million downloads. The mobile game has been “gamblified” by Synergy Blue, and the touch screen controls have been replaced with satisfyingly large arcade buttons. Washington said the company is talking with other software developers, but ideally would like to keep much of the work in-house.
Synergy Blue has also converted the social puzzle game Candy Cash to a gambling product. Washington said the game especially appeals to players aged 40 to 75.
“It’s easy to understand, and you can just jump in and start playing,” he said. “This is a casual style game. We wanted to make sure we have something to offer everyone.”
Of course, the company is keeping its sights on the millennial audience. Synergy Blue, like others in the slot machine world, are challenged to convert that particular audience to gamblers. But the company isn’t losing sight on who the majority of today’s gamblers are.
“The people who are gambling right now are baby boomers,” Washington said. “In order to be successful, we need to appeal to those folks. Their expectations have changed too. Ten years ago, that player was happy just pushing the slot machine buttons, now they want something more engaging, something like they get on their phones.”
The key, Washington said, is providing the product to the casino.
