Old Skool Studios Slots
While they may be a relatively young developer, having been established in 2011, Old Skool Studios is still an online casino software provider that lives up to its name. The Vancouver, Canada based company has developed its own signature retro style for many of its games that have allowed it to live up to the moniker they’ve given themselves.
Of course, that doesn’t mean that these slots don’t have a modern touch as well. With excellent graphics and features, these games mix the best of the old world and the new, creating distinctive slot machines that are among the most interesting options you’ll find anywhere on the Internet.
The Old Skool credo is that they don’t just make games, but rather create experiences for their users. That might sound like corporate doublespeak that doesn’t really mean much, but in this case, we can definitely see where they’re coming from. Through their services studio, LM Design Werks, the company has been releasing games for both real money and social casinos ever since their beginnings.
Since 2014, the studio has primarily focused on creating in-house, real money slot games under the Old Skool name. Immersion is the primary goal, and unlike most creators, they look to focus just as much on building a strong narrative for each machine as much as worrying about the math working behind the scenes.
The result is a small number of truly great games that have found their way into some of the best casino sites in the world. Titles like Epic City, La Rouge, and Temperance are among the best machines you’ll play anywhere online, and the fact that they are so immersive rather than just being a quick way to get some action is a large part of what makes each of these titles so memorable.
Read More
Read Less
So what are these games like, exactly? The titles created by this studio are each unique and very stylistic, offering up worlds for players to explode and enjoy. In this case, we can say that honestly, as these are much more engaging machines than what we typically see around the industry.
For instance, the company’s first big game – Epic City – is all about a post-Great Depression “World of Tomorrow,” the kind of futuristic landscape that people thought was coming at the time. The game takes place in a city filled with skyscrapers made of bronze and gold, filled with super-fast train lines and flying zeppelins rather than modern airplanes. The game challenges players to make the golden age last over a 20-line, five-reel machine. Filled with thematic and period-appropriate symbols, a style that is reminiscent of Atlas Shrugged (or more recently, the Bio Shock video game franchise), and dramatic visuals in the high-paying bonus rounds, this is a slot that players won’t soon forget.
Similar factors are at play in La Rouge, one of Old Skool Studios’ latest creations. This game is presented mostly in black and white, and tries to emulate the look and feel of the classic film noir genre. In fact, the whole slot game is a tribute to movies, featuring what the developers call “a tale of love and twisted double-cross.” Mechanically, this is a five-reel, 20-line slot with bonus features, mini-games, free spins and everything else that makes a typical slot a lot of fun to play. But once again, the real joy comes from the immersive setting and storytelling elements, which are unlike anything else we’ve seen in the industry.
There are other games as well in their portfolio, including some more traditionally themed products like the Jewel Quest series, which is based on the popular series of free matching strategy games. Even in these cases, however, players will be delighted to find a tremendous attention to detail and slots with excellent bonus features throughout, even if they aren’t quite as distinctive as some of the studio’s other games.
Without a massive collection of titles or a standalone platform that operators can use to build a site, most developers struggle to gain the attention of major sites. But that hasn’t been a problem for Old Skool Studios, as they’ve managed to sign a host of impression partnerships despite the fact that they aren’t delivering a product that can serve as the basis of an entire casino.
Some of this is accomplished through outsourcing, where the company will create games on behalf of other developers or operators. For instance, that’s how one of their earliest titles, Magic of Isis, came to be. The company worked with Rocket Gaming Systems to bring it to market back in 2011. The company has also sometimes worked as a design specialist for groups including the British Columbia Lottery Corporation – a sensible arrangement, seeing as how beautiful their creations look in general. Even Microsoft has commissioned Old Skool for help creating some steampunk-themed mobile apps.
Players, of course, are much more interested in where they can find these games. The company has seen their games included on some rather notable platforms, including Microgaming’s Quickfire and the Odobo platform (though that eventually closed down in 2016). Major industry names like Coral Casino, Mr. Green, and Zynga have also become clients of Old Skool Studios, both for real money and social play. Join an approved casino and you can play Microgaming slots, Just For The Win slots, and many other games alongside the Old Skool range.
As you’d expect, a developer with these kinds of connections is also a regular at public events for the industry. Over the years, the company has attended the Global Gaming Expo (G2E) and the International Casino Expo (ICE), the two biggest trade shows for iGaming firms.
While the name might throw off some players that are interested in playing the most modern, innovative games out there, don’t let it fool you: Old Skool Studios is one of the top developers in the industry today, and surely the biggest in the Vancouver casino games business. Their games have storytelling elements that are as strong as any out there, but combine them with amazing presentations and interesting gameplay features that keep players engaged from start to finish.
That’s a winning combination in anyone’s book. This may not be a provider that can power an entire studio, but their games instantly improve the collection of any operator, and that’s why many of the industry’s top websites have turned to the company to create slots for them. We expect to see a lot more out of this group in the years to come.
