The casino industry has transformed significantly over the years, and a large part of it has been driven by technological advances and innovation. Slog games are part of this transformation, evolving from their traditional lever-based machines to the modern, complex slot games available today. With different genres from football to pirates on a ship, developers have become very creative. A large part of the advancements in slots comes with the development of bonus mechanics that add variety and an extra layer of fun to gameplay. Certain bonus features, such as free spins, would become industry staples, providing additional gameplay mechanics when triggered.
Free Spins and Their Impact
Free spins features are one of the most commonly used features in the modern iGaming industry and in almost all UK live casino, which can commonly be triggered by landing a combination of bonus symbols. These bonus symbols are often regarded as the scatter, and depending on the slot, will change the number of symbols required to land to trigger the feature. Commonly, these free spins features have special reels in play, allowing for multipliers or expanding symbols to appear.
These free spins features have become popular in the online casino industry as they provide players with free spins of the reels, where additional mechanics are activated on top of base play.
Multipliers and Increased Wins
Many games over the years have added multipliers to gameplay, which play an important role in increasing potential prize values. These multipliers can vary in their values and the way they are triggered, with some games having multipliers specific to bonus rounds, whilst in others, they can be triggered in base play.
Regardless of where they appear, if they are triggered, multipliers are added to the prize value. As a result, small base-game prizes can grow larger, making the gameplay more interesting overall.
Wild Symbols
Throughout the history of slots, wild symbols have been a popular feature among developers, commonly operating in similar ways. The main function of the wild has remained the same over the years, with it acting as a substitute symbol for any of the base play symbols. The wild may step in for any of these base play symbols when a matching combination can be created, or extended across a payline. Over the years, many developers have placed unique twists on the wild symbol, adding features that can be triggered when it lands. These additional features can include multipliers, expanding wilds, or sticky wilds.
The addition of wild symbols in slot games makes the gameplay more interesting, with the potential of them to step in for any base symbol to create a matching combination. These symbols bring a level of variation to slot games, which is part of why they are one of the most popularly used bonuses in the industry.
Scatter Symbols and Bonus Triggers
As mentioned previously, scatter symbols are commonly those that are required to land in combination to trigger free spins bonuses. Whilst the industry norm is for these scatters to land and trigger the free spins, some slot titles have added scatter symbols to trigger alternative bonuses, such as mini games.
What makes these scatter symbols stand out from the rest of the symbols on the reels is their ability to trigger a feature regardless of where they land on the reels. The addition of the scatter symbol in slots makes every spin interesting, as landing a predetermined number of the symbol, anywhere on the reels, may trigger a bonus.
Bonus Games and Interactive Features
In recent years, many modern slot developers have added interesting bonus rounds that provide alternative gameplay experiences. These bonus games can vary, with many involving players selecting from a set of face-down objects to reveal prizes. These bonuses differ from others in the industry in that they require players to physically select a random object, which then reveals a prize corresponding to the selection.
Hold and Win Features
In recent years, many developers have added hold-and-win features to gameplay, a mechanic that differs from others. These bonuses commonly remove all base game symbols from the reels, allowing only bonus symbols to land on the grid, as well as blank positions. Each time a bonus symbol lands on the reels, it will stick to the reels for the entirety of the feature and reset the respins count. The bonus symbols will appear with a prize value, which will be awarded at the end.
As opposed to other bonus mechanics, the end of these hold and win mechanics is unknown to the player, as landing just one additional bonus symbol can extend it.
Conclusion
Bonus mechanics play a vital role in shaping modern slot games, providing additional gameplay that adds an interesting twist to base gameplay, for example, in a golf-themed slot game. These bonus mechanics add variety to gameplay and have become essential to the creation of slot games, with almost all modern releases featuring a range of bonus mechanics.
By adding these bonus mechanics to the base gameplay of slots, these titles become an overall more interesting gaming experience, with the potential to trigger features at random. Each feature can be triggered in a unique way, with many being activated through a combination of bonus symbols.
