Stinkin' Rich Tail Wins is IGT's first homegrown specialty market title. This game brings familiar mechanics but also entirely new, never before seen spice.
My Role on this team
My first steps with this game was to create its initial concept to bring to our product partners for approval. We would go back and forth with the feedback and tweaks to give them what they were looking for; sometimes pushing boundaries to get the game that would be the best. The base concept was but a small kernel that became the game that it is now. I oversaw the progress of the game with each member on the team, creatively directing where we were going with it. What worked best and felt right. I was extremely big on group design, holding a belief that everyone, regardless of discipline, deserved to have their thoughts considered in the core design.
Breakdown of the game
Stinkin' Rich Tail Winds is a 3 pot lock and respin game with ample character interaction. If you are lucky, you might even see the "secret" 4th bonus! The main free game bonus named S.S. Lock and Respin can be triggered by reaching 0 on one or more of the modifier locks or the barrel, 3 green keys, Red Keys or wheels landing on the reels, and through trash for cash.
Base Game
The base game features the traditional Stinkin' Rich reels, 5,5,3,5,5. Fans of the franchise will see several loved mechanics from the past games such as: Random Wilds and Trash for Cash. In my original concept, I changed to have a 3x5 matrix to match the bonus, but with having so many changes that pull away from the original loved game, I decided to go forward with having the original matrix style to bring back that familiarity.
Trash for cash takes a bit of a different form in Tail Winds. Instead of being awarded one amount depending on what can you choose, you open all three cans and keep the awards. Additionally you can now trigger bonuses through trash for cash by getting the corresponding trigger symbol in one of the cans!
When designing, I wanted to keep several of the original base game bonuses, but expand on them to bring them to the future. With trash for cash we were able todo that with tying in the bonuses and more rewards.
Bonus Free Games
The bonus free games are designed in 3 separate matrices ranging in value. We wanted to emulate history a bit when it came to the coin types and their values. The bottom matrix is a 3x5 with copper coins which have the smallest value range. You have a few goals in the free games: Black out any ONE matrix to win the Grand, Unlock each matrix for more winnings, and of course have a great time! The middle matrix gets smaller and is a 2x5 with silver coins that value range is higher than what you can get in copper. The top matix being gold and 1x5 makes this the most sought after matix to unlock with it holding the highest values. No matter what, you will enter the bonus with one modifier active! Richard the Skunk is the keeper if the modifiers and will randomly activate them during the bonus!! In the original Concept, I wanted todo something similar to Prosperity link, where each matix was 3x5, but this felt too similar to every other muli matrix lock and respin in the market. I wanted to play heavily into our pirate theme in what we could do. The idea came to turn the bonus into the ships mast. After looking at the various historical ships and many sketches later, we came to this design! Fun Fact: The reels are 3D game objects! Something we haven't seen before in the industry!
Bonus Modifiers
Stink Bomb Bonus Modifier
The stink bombs follow an ignite style mechanic. Richard has a chance at throwing the bombs down to the reels and turning a coin to a bomb. Each spin, the credit values increase in value until the end of the bonus
Chest Bonus Modifier
The Chests follow a collect style mechanic. Richard has a chance at pulling a chest out of the crows nest, opening it and collecting all coins on the selected matrix.
Shown in the photo to the right, you see a chest in the upper right corner, this houses the total amount of credits that have been collected during the bonus.
Wheel Bonus Modifier
The wheel bonus modifier is a dynamic wheel that changes depending on what is active in the bonus. During a solo wheel bonus, The spaces on the wheel include:
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One time collect chest
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One Time Ignite Stink Bomb
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+1 - +3 Spins added to your 3 regular spins
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Swords to cut the next ropes off the next locked matrix
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Jackpot coin that spins determining which one is awarded
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Coin that gets placed in an empty space on the matrix
The alternative spaces are
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Super Stink Bomb
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If the Stink Bomb modifier is active in the bonus already, the slice of the wheel turns into the Super Stink Bomb. When landing this slice, Richard with throw a stink bomb with a background to it. This space now increments at a higher amount each spin.
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Super Collect Chest
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When activated, Instead of collecting one of the matrices it collects ALL matrices regardless of bring locked or not.
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Coin Boost
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If all matrices are unlocked, the swords are replaced with a coin pile. If you land on this space, it boosts all coins on the screen.
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S.S. Full Sail
The S.S. Full Sail Bonus is our "secret" 4th bonus, and is by far one of the most valuable. It is triggered by landing the skeleton key in the first row followed by 1-3 different bonus symbols. This bonus is triggered with no less than 2 modifiers. The S.S. Full sail bonus essentially turns the top sail of the regular bonus into the entire screen! Making all of your values gold coins!
Designer Notes!
This game is my pride and joy of my time in the slot design industry. I learned so many valuable lessons when it comes to design and just HOW I want to design in the future. My position was interesting given this was a small team. It is hard to put just one job title to it. I was the designer, the creative director and the producer when it comes to organizing the teams (just not the scheduling and milestones). My goal with this game was to do as many "out of the box" things I could get away with. Do what has never been seen before and also give a design voice to everyone on the team. I wanted our audio designer, engineers, mathematicians, project managers and artists to feel comfortable enough to be able to throw out game design ideas if they had any. I also wanted to fill the game with character interaction both to what's happening in the game but also with the player! There are several easter eggs that I cant wait to see people find!