Introduction

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Casino Viability

Most large casinos have approximately two thousand slot machines. Although these machines have different themes, they have many elements in common. They all have bright, colored lights, they all make a lot of noise and have spinning wheels or flashing graphics, and they all payout from time to time.

With so many essential elements in common, why is it that only a few receive undying attention from gamblers, while the others are hardly touched? What language do these popular slot machines speak that gamblers understand and are attracted to?

This document will quantify the essential elements of a popular gaming machine, as well as predict what elements will be needed in the future.

The modern casino floor is completely over salient with noise, music, and lights. It is impossible to distinguish one slot machine from another.

I remember at the Rio, we wanted to create a device that would actually talk to individual slot customers, giving them information on their slot play or if they won a jackpot. I used every type speaker imaginable, even a military directional speaker, but could not overcome the decibel level of the environment. So, when I played the message, �You just won a Jackpot!� it would come out a muffled �Due lust one ack not�

There are, however, some slot machines that use this over salient environment to their advantage. A perfect example of this is the Wheel of Fortune slot machine. Every few seconds, this slot machine produces the familiar theme song.

The machine capitalizes on the pre-branding of the popular show. Every casino player has heard this song a thousand times in their living room and associates this song with the word, �fortune�.

The instant this song is played, gamblers have an idea what the slot machines is about and how to play it. More importantly, the slot machine is recognized immediately from its themed song and graphics.

Monopoly by Williams uses a similar technique, but instead of using audio as it�s trigger, it uses graphics. Monopoly uses the logo and the characters from the popular board game in their cabinetry and graphic designs.

The affect is the same as Fortune, when a player sees the graphics, they are already familiar and comfortable with the game.

This type of branding is very common in the video game industry. Nintendo uses Mario Brothers, Sega uses Sonic, and Electronic Arts uses John Madden for it popular sports games.

A game buyer immediately recognizes the marketed character and knows intrinsically what the game is about and how it is played. This should be no different in the casino industry.

One example of the failure to brand properly is the Odyssey system. This machine although quite innovative in its design and graphics, doesn�t have any familiarity to it. There�s nothing about the Odyssey system that intrinsically tells a gambler how to play their games.

The Odyssey system is a fun machine to play. The vertical screen and the touch interface are very original and are the foundation for some very unusual, but fun games. The problem is the learning curve in using the interface and interacting with the game is too high for most casino players. Especially, tourist players (which the game is marketed to) who are limited on time.

Well the obvious conclusion is branding and familiarity, but there�s more to it than that. Branding should start in the conceptual design phase of building a slot machine engine. These programming engines must be modular enough to expand to new phases and sequels. Plans should be made in the beginning of the development for new features and the ability to upgrade in graphics and sound. Programmers and librarians should anticipate there will be additions and modifications to the original modules.

The design also needs to be modular. The goal is to build an engine that can be ported to new games. This serves many purposes:

� Players familiar with series A of a slot machine design, feel comfortable and familiar with series B and series C

� Graphics, sound and theme may change, but the user interface stays the same.

� Advertising and marketing can focus on a slot machine theme covering several slot machines not just one.

In its simplest terms, a gaming machine, as my finite mathematics professor would say, is �a random event within a set of predetermined values.� All gambling devices fall under this rule, but instead of talking about each individual system (i.e. video poker, reel slots, keno), this section will cover how a machine, regardless of its type, confines itself to a rhythm and flow of play.

Locals � Players that come more than once a week and live near the casino or tavern.

Tourist � Players that come from out of town and stay two or three days and visit more than one casino.

Both types of players operate under two key factors: Budget and Time. Budget is the set amount of money a player brings to the casino. Time is the amount of time the player can spend at the casino.

Statistics show that in Las Vegas, a typical tourist player stays three to four days and visits two casinos. He or she will gamble the most on the first day, with the rest of the money budgeted out across the remaining days. This type of player is usually interested in fast action, high payout slots, like MegaBucks and Wheel of Fortune.

Their budgeted money is much more than a local player and the tourist player plans to spend all of the budgeted money during the trip.

In general the tourist player likes to play large jackpot, fast playing reel or keno machines. These games often have side action items like roulette wheels, extra reels on top, or progressive meters.

The local player has a fixed weekly budget and wants to play for a long time span. He accomplishes this by either playing lower denomination machines or low jackpot, high payout machines like, Double Bonus Poker.

Unlike the tourist player who is hoping to hit the MEGA jackpot before they go home, the local player is trying to extend play for as long as possible and isn�t expecting to hit a jackpot before they leave the casino.

In general, the local player likes to play low jackpot, slow playing poker machines. These games involve a certain amount of skill and knowledge of the game. This appeals to local, who sees himself as a gambler.

Timing and Rhythm of Play

When I designed video games at Westwood Studios, I followed a simple plan of upward scaling, play intensity. This play intensity would flow like a sine wave. The trough of the play action was the start of the level, the action would build to a peak, this was called a �Big Boss Scene� or �Goal Trigger� depending on the game type. This peak of action was where the player was most involved in the game interaction. The general play would increase throughout the game, so that the peaks of each cycle were tougher and tougher.

A gaming machine follows a similar flow of action. As players win and lose, they create an intensity of game action. Unfortunately, most gaming machines are designed so that play is a mirror image of the graph above.

As a gambler plays the machine, the coin-in steadily goes down. As he loses more and more money, he becomes more conservative on his playing options, thus the play intensity is decreased.

Conclusion

Here we have the great dilemma of gaming machine design. Because the goal of every slot machine is to take in as much money as possible, the result is a steady decrease in game intensity and play.

Actually this design has been used for years by arcade games. An arcade game is a mix between a gaming machine and video game. Every arcade game is designed with the following assumption: The player is going to place a coin in the machine and receive an expected time of play. The trick of an arcade design is to get the player to put in another coin after game play is finished to continue.

Gaming machines need to be designed not only to steadily take in money, but to create an intensity of play that focuses the gambler on putting more coin in. Instead of becoming more conservative as coin-in decreases, the gambler actually becomes more daring in game play.

The goal it to create really two games in one. The first game is a typical reel machine that every player is comfortable with and knows how to play. The outcome of this reel machine play, triggers or influences the secondary game.

This design in some respects is already being accomplished. For example, if you hit three Wheel of Fortunes on the reel portion of the Wheel of Fortune slot machine, the secondary game kicks in and the wheel on top spins. But this secondary play, the spinning of the wheel, is really in itself a singular event, there is no carry over to the next play and the game intensity, although from time to time spikes, steadily decreases.

If we look at all game play as a sine wave, where individual pulls represent either a raise or a fall in action, with the mean of the game intensity either rising or falling, we can start to design games that follow a regular flow of ever increasing intensity and action. This creates suspense with the gambler who wants to see what is going to happen next. This also takes away from focusing on how much coin is in the machine.

Also, we can separate the sine wave for winning and losing from the sine wave for game intensity and action.

The casino player has become more and more sophisticated and expects greater variety and interaction from gaming machines. Also, the casino floor has become extremely competitive, with new developers and individual designs from the casino�s in-house departments.

Now more than every, it is critical not only to attract the slot customer to your machine, but to keep that customer playing.

It is my belief that the next logical progression of gaming design is to focus on secondary play and steadily building intensity of play throughout the gaming session, not on just one cycle.