Fresh Ideas from Fresh Faces
For many aspiring games developers, the first step towards acceptance and to gaining brand recognition is to take their wares to trade shows. Populated by the industry’s movers and shakers, these events provide the perfect opportunity for pressing flesh, exchanging contacts and forging professional relationships that have the potential to bear fruit in the months to come.
From the developer’s perspective, they also provide a sorely needed opportunity to get out of the office and to interact with fellow industry types who talk their language.
Join Games have wasted no time in hitting up Malta’s major gaming events, including the island’s prestigious SiGMA iGaming summit, which is held every November.
New Kids on the Block
One of the most exciting things about becoming a games developer is signing agreements with existing and well-established clients. These provide public proof that your games not only pass muster, but that your company is becoming accepted and respected within the industry.
Join Games have wasted no time in partnering up with some leading names in the iGaming sector who have the muscle to bring the Maltese company’s wares to a wider audience. Since their inception in 2014, Join Games have proudly announced deals with the likes of TotoWinBet, one of Malta’s leading bookmakers, and Ezugi, a company specialising in live dealer casino games such as Roulette and Blackjack.
They’ve also signed an agreement with the iSoftBet slots developer. bringing Join Games’ titles to the firm’s Game Aggregation Platform. This has been followed by deals with EveryMatrix and Betconstruct, who operate a large and highly respected gaming platform.
Throw in a recent partnership with Viral Interactive, and it would be fair to say that Join Games are a company whose star is in the ascendancy.
Joined up Thinking
The games that Join Games have released to date encompass some extremely diverse themes, but action and adventure is never far away. Their slots are divided into two categories: premium slots and cineslots.
The latter category is a term that Join Games have used to describe their cinematic games; titles that are either influenced by actual movies or slot machines in the style of famous movies. This may sound derivative, but in practice it proves to be anything but. Join Games have released a number of cineslots such as, Kleopatra and The Legend of Emerald, both of which hark back to the golden age of cinema while proving to be forward-thinking games.
Cineslots
On the firm’s website, it’s possible to play the games and get a feel for what they have to offer. They have a decent selection of online slots with exciting bonus features that you play for free. Kleopatra is a 5-reel slot with 10 lines, a bonus game, scatter multiplier and expanding wilds. In action it proves to be a beautiful looking game, with classic Egyptian music setting the mode and a game board on which everything is rendered in gold. This isn’t the tacky sort of gold that festoons most Egyptian slots; somehow Join Games’ gold looks more, well, golden.
Spin the reels and the fun begins in earnest. Animations have a distinctive kick of their own that’s unlike that of other slots, with subtle shadow effects and moving backgrounds giving the reels depth and realism. Even the basic playing card symbols look stunning, while major symbols such as the mummy, rendered in a horror style reminiscent of the film of the same name, are gruesome yet amazing. When the wild expands to fill all three visible lines, the full horror of the mummy’s decaying flesh and rotting bandages can be appreciated. If only all Egyptian themed online slots looked and sounded this good.
Pirate Plunder
The Legend of Emerald slot machine, another cineslot Join Games have released to date, proves to be a pirate caper, complete with a stirring soundtrack that makes you want to set sail for the horizon at a moment’s notice. While not as spectacular as Kleopatra, it’s a beautiful looking game nonetheless, with a background featuring an impossibly attractive female ship’s captain and game symbols that are wrapped in rope and rendered with precision.
Like Kleopatra, it has expanding wilds and a free spins bonus game, activated by landing three ship’s wheels.
Mobile Games
No software developer starting out today can seriously expect to prosper without catering to the mobile market. Join Games have naturally incorporated the mobile gaming audience into their business strategy, creating titles that are optimised for smartphones and tablets as well as running smoothly on desktop devices.
Of the slots the company have released to date, most are mobile compatible. Mobile users can look forward to spinning the reels of some exciting and colourful games including Aztec Temple, Kleopatra, Cyber Ninja, Venice Carnival, Zombie Escape, Monster’s House and The Dragon.
The Future of Join Games
Join Games have sections on their website for table games and video poker, but there are no games to display here. The presence of these sections, however, is indicative of the direction Join Games will be moving in the coming months. This makes sense; it’s common practice for software developers to master the art of video slots before moving on to table games and video poker.
Once you’ve proven your ability to nail the maths and the gameplay that slots demand, table games are a natural transition to make.
Expect to see more premium and cineslots too from Join Games as they expand upon the solid start they’ve made to date, and look to release increasingly diverse titles built upon the solid platform that’s powered the firm’s games up until now. Perhaps Join Games can develop a range of movie style titles to rival those of Playtech slots.
To succeed in the iGaming sector today, developers have to offer something genuinely fresh and innovative; churning out third-rate clones of existing games simple won’t cut it. Based on their portfolio so far, Join Games are going to be around for the long haul. Expect to be seeing a lot more of this Maltese company in the near future.
