As part of the SlotsWise Interview Series with gaming studios, we had the chance to speak with Rory Harpur, Chief Product Officer at Alchemy Gaming. The company has top-notch mechanics and audiovisuals in its focus and strives to create the gold standard in gaming experiences.
Find out more about Alchemy Gaming, its unique take on the slots experience and plans for the upcoming months in our interview!
Welcome, Rory! We're glad to have you as our special guest in this week's interview series. Before we begin, could you introduce yourself and Alchemy Gaming to our readers?
"Hello. I’m Rory Harpur, and I’m the Chief Product Officer responsible for the design team and building our games roadmap.
Alchemy Gaming hit the market in early 2019 with our first game, Wheel of Wishes. We’re curious and love trying to tease games apart to understand the real magic that keeps players engaged. This is what keeps the job fun and drives us to keep building new mechanics and slot experiences."
How much time does it take to make a new game at Alchemy Gaming, from idea to release?
"This all depends on the complexity of the game features, but games are normally starting to take shape in our heads seven or eight months before they’re released to the world. We put many hours of gameplay into all our content to ensure the best possible experience for players."
How are the creative and development processes organised?
"Being a small studio, our creative and development teams work very closely together. Design work typically overlaps the development cycle quite extensively in order to keep a tight turnaround between dreaming up concepts and starting to get a feel for how they play. We’re really proud of the collaborative mindset that we have in the studio."
Your games are filled with innovative bonus features, including the X UP™ feature. Can you tell us more about how it works and the intended player experience?
"We’re really happy to see the reception that our X UP™ games have had in the market! As in most games, free spins are triggered with three scatters.
The novelty of the X UP™ feature is that players are awarded tokens every time they just miss out on free spins by landing two scatters. As these tokens collect, the free spin multiplier that will be used when the player does trigger increases – in the case of Chronicles of Olympus X UP™, potentially all the way to 50x!"
We’re curious to learn more about your new online slot titled Aquanauts. What can you tell us about its gameplay and features?
"Aquanauts is a big game for us in that it shows the kind of innovation that we’re starting to bring to the market.
We’ve launched a new mechanic called Echo Roll™ that elevates the potential of rolling reels and creates some incredible winning experiences, and we’re taking another mechanic of ours – UPSIZER™ – to a whole new level. Players are able to customize the free spin experience they want in ways that no other game on the market is offering!
All of this combines with rolling reels and unlimited multipliers, which sometimes increase by 3x on every win, into a game that has the potential to deliver wins up to 50,000x."
Another game that caught our players’ attention is the Chronicles of Olympus X UP™ slot, thanks to its high-quality design and attractive features. What inspired you to create this slot?
"I have always loved classic Greek mythology slots and we felt that the X UP™ engine was a perfect opportunity for us to add our own spin on the theme into the fray."
Are there any specific features or mechanics that you plan on including in your upcoming slots?
"We have plenty on the way, but our sights are predominantly set on Alchemy Gaming's original features!"
Could you give us a sneak peek of what’s coming next from Alchemy Gaming?
"Football Finals X UP™ is lined up for release in November, just in time for the World Cup, and my favourite game so far, Tiger’s Ice, is currently pegged as a December release, so it will be a busy Q4 for us! You and your readers can keep up to date on these new releases by following our socials or visiting our website."
Thank you, Rory, for taking the time to chat with us and give us a behind-the-scenes look! We cannot wait to see the new releases you have planned for the next months.
In the meantime, make sure to visit Alchemy Gaming and try some of their already released awesome titles!