GamePoint Casino

Hello! 😀
As you might know I am currently working for GamePoint in The Hague, The Netherlands.
I am working for GamePoint as a Game Developer for GamePoint’s latest release, GamePoint Casino.
I will show you around GamePoint Casino and will tell some small history behind it.

History

To tell some history about GamePoint Casino, I would like to tell a little bit of my history with GamePoint. 🙂
I started working for GamePoint as an intern from March 2016 till July 2016. I was back then only working on prototypes of improving their current games and new ideas. I really enjoyed my time as an intern and after I got graduated in July 2017 as Game Developer I send an application to GamePoint. From this point it went really fast. I started working for GamePoint in August 2017 and got this really fun project to create casino games prototypes for GamePoint’s biggest Game, GamePoint Bingo.

When we create a prototype we create them within one week. Creating prototypes within one week gives you a lot of space to create multiple prototypes with minimal resources and time. You can clearly see if the prototype has a potential to become a releasable product. Sometimes you will be finished within one or two days and sometimes you will notice after one or two days that this prototype will not become a potential product for your portfolio!
I can really recommend to all developers to use this strategy of creating a prototype within one week. It is much fun and you will become faster in creating prototypes the more you create! 😉

We created five different prototypes which also have been developed into releasable products.
These games are:

I depth explanations:

Royal Keno

Royal Keno is a Keno variant with extra ball feature.

For me personally Keno is a very special game. It is the very first prototype I created when we started and the first game we ported from prototype to releasable game for GamePoint Bingo.
Every time I work on keno or play keno, I always get this feeling again like it was just created.

How to play:

• You select 2 to 10 numbers.
• Press deal
• The game will draw 20 balls.
• When you win within the last and first section of the pay table, you’ll get the option to draw 2 extra balls paying your wager again.

Video Poker, jacks or better

Video poker jacks or better is a fun and quick game. I am really happy with how the auto-hold turned out. It makes the game much easier to play and if you want to, you can basically spam the deal button and still being able to win a decent amount of coins.

How to play:

• Press deal to start and receive five random cards.
• Select any card you wish to hold. When the game holds cards automatically you are able to unhold these by pressing the hold card.
• Press deal again and the game will draw new cards on the unholded cards.

Hi-Lo

Hi-Lo, short for Higher or Lower is a card gamble game.
This game always makes me laugh when I see it. It is personally the most irritating game we have in our GamePoint Casino list. This game is pure based on luck but you can make smart decisions. So can you count the cards to higher your chances of winning but this will also affect the payout 😉
I will never forget the prototype phase of this game. Everyone was saying this game is too easy, people will make too much money with this game and many more complains. Luckily we kept trusting the math and nowadays everyone I know who played our Hi-Lo thinks it is rigged.

I can ensure everyone this game is totally not rigged. The game is totally random and you should just choose wisely.

How to play:

• Press deal to start.
• Select higher/lower or and black/red . (higher when you think next card will be higher, lower when you think next card will be lower, red when you think the next card will be hearts or diamonds and black when you think next card will be clubs or spades).
• Whenever you win you will get the option to continue with your winning (higher stake means higher payout when you win) or collect.
• Whenever you press collect or your guess is wrong the game ends.

The numbers are from 1 to 13. This means that Ace is the lowest number and King the highest. When the same card number gets drawn using only higher or lower, the player will always lose.

Blackjack

Blackjack is a card game with not such high payout possibilities as our other games. But it always amazes me how happy people are to see blackjack since it is of course a golden classic casino card game! ?

How to play:

• Press deal to start.
• The game will draw two cards for the dealer (with one visible and one card showed backwards) and to the player.
• When your total score is between 9 and 11 you can use the option double by paying the same wager again. The game will draw one card for the player and hold their score.
• When you have two cards from the same number you can use split.
• Press hit to draw a third, fourth etc. card.
• Press stand to hold your score.
• When the dealer has an ace you get the option to buy insurance. When you do buy insurance and the dealer has blackjack you will receive your total wager back.
• The dealer always plays until the dealer has a total score of 17 or more.
• When the players score is 22 above the player will burst and lose.
• When the dealer score is 22 or above the player will win.
• When the player has 21 with the first two cards the player has a blackjack and will receive a x3 payout.
• When the player pressed double and wins against the dealer the payout will be x2.

Money Wheel

Money Wheel or in some casinos called big six is a fun wheel game where you can bet on which number it will end. The payout are 1:number which means when you bet on 1 and you win you get x2 your wager returned.
This game is really easy to play and you can bet on multiple number.

Personally I really enjoyed creating the exciting feeling of the wheel by having the pin being able to bounce the wheel.

How to play

• Choose any bet(s).
• Press spin.
• Wait till the animation is done.
• If the end of the wheel animation ends on one of your selected bets. You will receive wager:bet back.

These are all the games we produced from the very beginning.
I really can not describe how much fun it was to be part of starting of a project within a big company from prototyping till release in our biggest game.
Not only is it very scary to see that a lot of people start playing your creation but it is also very exciting and motivative.

While working on these games I always dreamed of being able to port these game into a stand alone version. A stand alone version where we can work on more of these fun prototypes and make these prototypes alive by releasing them.
I am very very! happy I can tell it actually happened we have released a stand alone version of:

GamePoint Casino

GamePoint Casino is currently in early access. This means we are still full in development of this product. We released the core game mechanics. In GamePoint Casino we ported almost all of our Flash Slots games from GamePoint Slots into GamePoint Casino.
It was a fun journey porting a game from a different technology to Unity3D! Because of the porting we decided to make the slots as minimalistic as possible for first release. We will improve the slot games as soon as possible.

Animations

One of my responsibilities is implementing and creating animations. So do I like to share some of the animations I created and implemented.

These are the first iteration of the big/super/mega win animations. I liked the animation but this was an animation which had to be created for the very first release.

We noticed quite fast that the big win animation is quite important for the game feeling, so we decided to update it!

This is the newest and current big/super/mega win animation. I am very proud of how it worked out. I really enjoyed working together with our artist to manage this first improvement to GamePoint Casino.

Another animation which has not been changed from the very first release is the level up animation.

This animation was fun to create. It is really important everything is clear when you level up. We show your new level in the star and show your rewards in the banner. You can choose to skip the animation by pressing continue or wait 30 seconds and it will hide automatically. We decided to make the 30 seconds hide functionality so people who play in auto spin will not be interrupted and the game continues.

Slots

We ported already 5 of our GamePoint Slots (Flash) to GamePoint Casino (Unity3D). Also we added two new slots as addition!
All current slot games:

Word Farm

Word farm is our latest addition to GamePoint Casino. This slot machine is ported from GamePoint Slots into GamePoint Casino.
Word Farm is a 5×4 reel slot machine with free spins and a bonus game!

Bonus game
When collection three bonus symbols on the reel you will transit to the bonus game!
In the bonus game you have to pick drawers. Behind each drawer lays an egg! When you manage to match three of the same eggs you will get the listed payout from the pay-table.

Free spins
When collecting three or more free spin symbols on the reels you will transit to free spins mode! As an extra addition the middle reel will transform into a multiplier reel! Each win line will be multiplied if it matches with any of the middle multipliers.

Royal Sevens

Royal sevens is a single lined slot machine. I have been a big part in creating the pars-sheet of this slot machine and it was really enjoyable. This game is not ported from GamePoint Slots to GamePoint Casino but was the very first slot machine we created from scratch within the GamePoint Casino development!

Royal sevens does not have any special features, but it does have 3D symbols!
Royal sevens is our only (currently) slot machine which has blank symbols. Blank symbol means instant lose. But any three symbols combination is always payout! The royal seven symbol is the highest symbol + wild. Having three royal seven symbols in Royal Sevens is the biggest payout currently possible in all of our slot machines ;).

Dice of Fortune

Dice of fortune is one of the favorite slot games ported from GamePoint Slots into GamePoint Casino. Dice of fortune is a 5×3 reel slot machine with free spins and a bonus game! The big difference of the features of this slot machine is that they are all automated and will not cause any interruption for the user. This slot machine is themed with one of GamePoint’s biggest products Royal Dice.

Bonus game
When collection three bonus symbols on the reel you will transit to the bonus game!
Bonus game will draw five dice and will animate them to a random number from 1 to 6 (regular dice). Combinations are listed on the pay-table. After the animation your winning will be highlighted on the pay-table.

Free spins
When collecting three or more free spin symbols on the reels you will transit to free spins mode!
When you hit three free spin symbols your free spin payouts will be multiplied with 3!
When you hit four free spin symbols your free spin payouts will be multiplied with 4!
When you hit five free spin symbols your free spin payouts will be multiplied with 5!
When being in transition to free spins the game will draw two dice and animate them. They will both stop at a random number and the two dice combined will be your total free spins. 🙂

Vivas Spinata

Viva Spinata is our Mexican themed slot machine. Vivas Spinata is a 5×3 reel slot machine with free spins and a bonus game!

Bonus game
When collection three bonus symbols on the reel the reels will animate towards a bonus game!
The slotmachine will transit all reels towards the bonus symbols and these symbols becomes a picking game. You can press any of the bonus symbols to reveal your bonus!
The more bonus symbols you collect the higher the payouts behind the bonus symbols.

Free spins
When collecting three or more free spin symbols on the reels you will transit to free spins mode!

Temple of Words

Temple of Words is currently my personal favorite slot machine we have in our portfolio according graphics and ambiance! I love the ambiance in this slot machine combined with the variety of features! Temple of Words is a 5×3 reel slot machine also with two features!

Bonus game
When collection three bonus symbols on the reel the reels will animate towards a bonus game!
The game will allow you to choose between three options. Behind every option is a price and you have to choose the lucky pick to win the biggest win!

Free spins
When collecting three or more free spin symbols on the reels you will transit to free spins mode!
In free spin mode the reels change with different symbols with different payouts!

Classic slots

Classic slots is actually basically what the title says. It is a classic slot machine with low payouts but high volatility! Classic slots is a 3×3 slot machine without any extra features.

Funny story about classic slots is that it is based on the Flash slot machine we have in GamePoint Bingo Flash version! 😀

Jungle Bingo

Last but not least! Jungle Bingo. Jungle Bingo is a 5×3 reel slot machine with free spins and a bonus game!

Bonus game
When collection three bonus symbols on the reel the reels will animate towards a bonus game!
The slotmachine will transit all reels towards the bonus symbols and these symbols becomes a picking game. You can press any of the bonus symbols to reveal your bonus!
The more bonus symbols you collect the higher the payouts behind the bonus symbols.

Free spins
When collecting three or more free spin symbols on the reels you will transit to free spins mode!

These are all our current slot machines! As I said by temple of words it is my favorite slot machine. This is all based on the feeling and appealing of this slot machine. I loved working on each slot machine. Personally I loved the development of Royal Sevens but this is also because this is our first slot machine we created fully from scratch. I have been part of simulating and calculating the pars sheet to ensure this slot machine can possibly fit our portfolio. If you ask me, I think we did a good job with that! 🙂

Collections event

In the end of December 2018 we released our first meta game, Collection events! This feature will allow you to collect items while spinning. We only enable this event on special occasions and will theme every event! Our first event was with GamePoint’s famous Winter Wonder Week which is before christmas where GamePoint gives away a lot of cool prizes!

We made this feature fully maintainable by live ops so we can launch a collection event any time without uploading anything to the client.

Challenges

Creating GamePoint Casino brings a lot of challenges with them. From creating frameworks to making sure everything is as flexible as possible so we can make fully use of live ops.

The biggest challenge for me personally was porting a working prototype to a releasable product within the frame work of GamePoint.
This is my very first work experience after my graduation! This was my personal start of becoming a ‘professional’ and really started to learn much about releasable projects.

Working on porting slot games from GamePoint Slots to GamePoint Casino with creating a framework to make future slot machines is a real fun challenge and is still in progress. We still have a few slots we can port and there are a lot of improvements and additions for this framework.

This is GamePoint Casino and still growing!
I hope you will like it. 😉

Let me know if you have any suggestions, feedback or questions down in the comments. Also feel free to write me a direct message on Instagram any time!

Thank you very much for reading!

– Justin Scott.