With the new Elysium Studios release, driven by Swintt, Chessmas, set to hit players’ screens on November 28, we caught up with Swintt Head of Business Development, Lars Kollind, to learn more about the difficulties of developing holiday-themed titles, and how finding the right combination of engaging mechanics and unique bonus features is crucial to helping suppliers create a slot for all seasons.

CasinoBeats: Seasonal titles can be a crucial way to put your games in front of the eyes of players. However, what are the challenges in designing such titles?

Lars Kollind: Given that almost every game supplier creates at least one holiday-themed title per season, it can be a bit of a challenge to design a game that genuinely stands out among the competition.

The trick is to create something that combines the traditional seasonal elements that players will undoubtedly be expecting – such as having a cosy, winter theme for Christmas slots – with game mechanics or features that are innovative and unique.

Obviously you have to strike the right balance between making something that’s different and still keeping it engaging and fun to play, and that’s exactly what we’ve tried to do with all our seasonal titles to date, including Chessmas.

CB: How can you ensure that such games are truly unique when working with what is a limited set of themes?

LK: I think it mostly comes to thinking outside the box and trying to use different features and mechanics from the rest of your competitors. In Chessmas, we’ve done this by combining the classic Christmas setting of Santa’s workshop with unique wild symbols that move like chess pieces whenever they’re selected by the bonus reel.

We then doubled down on this board game theme by having a feature where players roll dice and move around a track to win multipliers, with the idea here being that Christmas is a time where families come together and play traditional games. We wanted to capture this same spirit in Chessmas and I think we’ve done so really well.

CB: Is there any true value in pursuing seasonal related slot games when looking at such titles from the eyes of a player?

LK: In my opinion there is, yes. It’s been proven in the past that seasonal titles definitely do work and whether they’re themed around Halloween, Christmas, Valentines, Easter or any other holiday that you care to think of, players do always tend to look for something that fits the specific time of year.

Over the festive period, people generally gravitate towards anything that helps get them into the holiday spirit – and Christmas songs, ugly jumpers and seasonal slots can all play a big part in that! Of course, the challenge is to create something players will want to play even after the season is over, so good game design and smart mechanics are still the most important things.

CB: What is the appeal of seasonal games? Is this still growing or fading due to other content trends taking over?

LK: I would say that based on what we’ve seen from our game collection it’s still growing. Four years ago, we released a slot called Golden Reindeer around Christmas time and it’s still one of our top ten best-performing titles – not just during the Christmas season, but practically all year round.

I think at the end of the day a good game is a good game, so just because it was released to mark a specific holiday doesn’t mean it can’t still be enjoyed after the season is over. That’s the sort of lasting popularity that we’re aiming for with the upcoming release of Chessmas, and I think the combination of unique wilds and a board game bonus feature will certainly help us achieve that.

CB: In your opinion, do certain seasonal titles perform better than others?

LK: I think there’s a case to be made that the more widely-known and widely-celebrated holidays may hold a bit more appeal for audiences spread across multiple countries, so definitely a Christmas-themed slot is likely to perform better than one based on a regional holiday. On top of that, you have to consider the period of time that the holiday itself takes place in.

Over Christmas, most people typically have at least some time off from work, so they have more opportunities to engage with hobbies like playing online slots, whereas Valentine’s Day – although widely known – is not an actual holiday, so people don’t have the same time available.