This week, we've had a chat with Yann Bautista, BDM and co-founder at Peter & Sons. He shared the company's plans for 2022, as well as gave us an insight into the development process of their games.
Welcome, Yann! We're extremely glad to have you take part in our brand new interview series. Before we dive in, could you introduce yourself and Peter & Sons to our readers?
"Hi, my name is Yann and I'm one of the co-founders at Peter and Sons. We are an emerging game development studio formed by an international group of professionals and game enthusiasts with broad experience in mobile games and casino game development. At the moment we are a team of 15 people, working from our offices in Yerevan and Barcelona, and some remotely, like myself. One of our main businesses is the production of our own slot games for real money casinos that we distribute globally through our partner providers. We launched our first game in July last year, having now sixteen games live, and more to come :)"
Since your entry into the online slot market, you’ve released an impressive 16 titles (and counting). Which one are you proudest of and why?
"It is difficult to say; we try to improve ourselves with each new game we do. Once you release a game, you start focusing on the next one. But if I must pick a game, that's Johnan Legendarian, the first game we released with Yggdrasil, a turning point for us, we began to be seen as a Developer to watch for."
Your games follow a unique style when it comes to design and graphics. Where do you get your design inspiration?
"The design of the mechanics is an ongoing process, we have a dedicated team meeting every week, analyzing, and discussing ideas. Inspiration comes from a deep analysis of what's out there in the market, and the motivation to excel. Once we have a math model in place, the Dev team starts drafting proposals. The art team has total freedom to decide the style and theme that suits best the design or mechanics of the game. Throughout the development process, we have review sessions where everyone contributes."
What would you say is the most important aspect of a successful game?
"Although everything counts, the most important thing is the mechanics. Without good mechanics, right mathematically modelled with a well-balanced distribution of numbers, there's no good game. Said this, mechanics can be presented in different ways, that's where the rest comes in to create a hit."
The Monster Blox slot won The SlotsWise WOW Slot Award 2021, while Valkyries and Xibalba were shortlisted in different categories. Why do you think these games are award-worthy?
"I think it's because they are different from what's out there. A good combination of art style, with an unusual theme and good mechanics."
How important would you say the collaboration with Yggdrasil has been for the success of your games?
"No doubt it's been a turning point for Peter and Sons. They certainly do things very well. Yggdrasil has always been a reference developer for us, the quality of their games, their international presence. When they opened their YG Masters program to onboard third-party developers, we knew we had to be there."
What games from other providers inspire you to create your slots?
"We follow very closely all Yggdrasil games, especially the new ones as we have access to some of their licensed mechanics to use in our own games as we did in Monster Blox with their GigaBlox. Right now, you have many developers who are doing very interesting things, trying to push the limits in different ways, raising the quality of the games in general. It's worth keeping an eye on all of them."
What can we expect from Peter & Sons in 2022?
"More games :) To begin with, we will start the year with the global release of Xibalba in January. We also have a couple of game launches for the US market as well and it's going to be interesting to see what uptake they get. In general, 2022 will be a year to focus on development, try to bring out a good pipeline of titles, improve, research, and come out with some exciting new mechanics."
Thank you for taking the time to chat with us! We're excited to see what Peter & Sons will launch next.
In the meantime, make sure to check the provider's already released games and witness their unique gameplay first-hand!