Lilith's Inferno is often referred to as Yggdrasil, but to be precise, the author of the slot machine is the AvatarUX studio, which creates the slots itself, but distributes them through Yggdrasil as part of a collaboration through the YGS Masters program. At the end of January of this year, the Managing Director of AvatarUX, Marcus Honney, spoke with a journalist from European eGaming, where he spoke about this slot, the history and plans of the studio. Below is a translation of the interview.
You are a rising star in the gaming industry, can you give a brief history of the company?
AvatarUX officially launched during SIGMA 2019, after which we had a sharp rise in the casino supplier market. As one of the first partners of Yggdrasil's YGS Masters program, we released our first game, Lilith's Inferno, and received great feedback from players and operators, so we are gearing up for a bumper 2020.
From the very beginning, we were incredibly lucky that the interest of investors in our project gave us the opportunity to choose partners with whom we can truly cooperate. We wanted investors to be part of our journey.
All our partners work in this industry and are passionate about games. The team had experience working for both operators and developers in European and Asian gaming, so AvatarUX is a truly global studio.
AvatarUX one of the first studio partners of the YGS Masters program by Yggdrasil, how important was the decision to join such an established company?
Being an independent studio, the most important task was to surround ourselves with partners who had experience in European markets. Yggdrasil's connections were a major factor in why we applied for the YGS Masters program, and since we've been accepted, our relationship has gotten better and better.
A new provider needs to focus a lot on how to effectively market games. Instead of trying to do it alone, we felt it would be wise to team up with an experienced developer who can get games to operators quickly. We are currently using Yggdrasil for our Go To Market strategy in Europe to promote our game portfolio and help shape our strategy.
The slot development sector is highly competitive – what makes AvatarUX productsstand out in the crowd?
At AvatarUX, we are always looking for a balance between design and fun gameplay. Today, you need a studio-specific feature to win the attention and love of customers, whether they are operators or gamers. Our studio is not afraid to try something new, but we are also very attentive to the feedback we receive from operators and take it into account. Because we have a small team, we have the advantage of flexibility - a speedboat is easier to deploy than a yacht, and we can quickly respond to customer feedback, while leveraging our partners' global experience, which helps us stand out in a very competitive market.
We are also very focused on the game development process and are looking for optimal mathematical models to deliver the perfect gaming experience. As a result, we always invest a lot in R&D before going into production. Essentially, we're validating the game as a basic playable math prototype and then adding better graphics and animations. This results in a much higher level of quality for a real game.
You launched your first slot, Lilith's Inferno last year and received very good reviews. Can you tell us more about the development process for this game?
Since the company is still very small, the development process is heavily collaborative. The team collectively considered the initial concept. Then early game math prototypes were created, and since then everyone has had the opportunity to contribute to how the game was developed. After that, we discuss the features we want to use, but prototypes are the key starting point for us.
Our next four releases will build on the exciting new PopwinsTM mechanics, but each release will have additional features. The first game with the new mechanics, PopRocksTM, will launch in April. Planned releases are the perfect opportunity to use our team's expertise to add new features to a game mechanic that we know will be a hit.
The Asian influence on the graphics and mechanics of the game seems to have made the slot a real hit with players - do you plan to continue releasing games in this style?
We were delighted with the feedback we received on the first game, and it was also very well received by critics on YouTube and Twitch. The mechanics of the game have been particularly popular and we will be releasing new mechanics with our next four releases. In the future, you will see a release schedule where there will be Asian-style games based on well-known classic mechanics and with additional innovations. And even when the games are based on the local classic casino style, our designers in Hong Kong never miss an opportunity to add an interesting new feature.
What are AvatarUX's goalsfor 2020?
As an independent studio with big ambitions, we need very flexible publishers to help us establish ourselves among operators, studios and affiliates. We are launching four more games this year to complete the series and build our library of games. It's important for us to continue the momentum we've created with the release of Lilith's Inferno. ICE will start soon and we will be able to show our innovative game mechanics and start 2020 as we planned. We are fully aware that there is a lot of competition and that we need to be careful in our decision making, but we are excited about our future and will focus on continued growth.
Source: https://europeangaming.eu/portal/latest-news/2020/01/27/62729/exclusive-qa-with-marcus-honney-avatarux-md/
