Movers & Shakers: What Makes a Slot Worth Playing?

“Movers and Shakers” is a dynamic monthly column dedicated to exploring the latest trends, developments, and influential voices in the iGaming industry. Powered by GameOn and supported by HIPTHER, this op-ed series delves into the key players, emerging technologies, and regulatory changes shaping the future of online gaming. Each month, industry experts offer their insights and perspectives, providing readers with in-depth analysis and thought-provoking commentary on what’s driving the iGaming world forward. Whether you’re a seasoned professional or new to the scene, “Movers and Shakers” is your go-to source for staying ahead in the rapidly evolving iGaming landscape.

I spend a lot of time playing games, but probably just as much time thinking about why I enjoyed them.

What made me keep going? Was it the mechanic, the tension, the way the experience unfolded, or simply one moment that arrived at exactly the right time?

Those questions interest me far more than whether a game has the biggest max win, the newest feature or a mechanic nobody has seen before. You can have all three and still make something players forget five minutes later.

Being a gamer gives me a useful instinct for that. I have played games my whole life, well beyond slots, and I still pay attention to what is happening across console, mobile, streaming and wider gaming culture. But there is a trap in assuming that because you are a player, you automatically understand every player. Because you don't.

My appetite for volatility, risk or session length might be completely different to someone else's. The job is not to design the game I personally want to play. It is to understand why different players behave the way they do, then design deliberately around that.

That thinking sits behind The Mechanics of Entertainment, a new DEGEN Studios content series exploring why certain games, features and player behaviours take hold. It also reflects how we want to position DEGEN. Rather than talking about innovation, engagement and differentiation in the same broad terms as everyone else, we want to have a point of view on why mechanics work, how player behaviour is changing and where the industry can push further.

Take bonus buys. The obvious explanation for their success is speed because players can get to the feature faster. But that only tells part of the story. They also give players control over where they put their risk. Someone might never dream of making a huge base-game spin but will spend significantly more to access a feature because that stake has a clear purpose.

Ante bets, mystery buys and other enhanced modes tap into the same psychology. The interesting question is not simply what the button does. It is what the player thinks they are getting from pressing it.

I look at max win in a similar way. Of course, the number matters. Some players actively chase max wins and treat them almost like achievements, particularly within streaming culture. But a huge number at the top of a game sheet does not automatically create a good session.

This is because in most cases the chase matters. Some games give players visible signs that something is developing: values climb, positions change, features become available. Others rely on one explosive trigger that can turn a session instantly. And both can work. What matters is giving the player something to care about before the outcome arrives.

Volatility plays into that too. We talk about it as low, medium or high, but players feel it through the rhythm of the session: the dry spells, the anticipation, the near misses and the ultimate payoff when the game finally delivers.

That is why I see volatility as an emotional design tool as much as a mathematical one. High volatility can create adrenaline and friction, but if everything meaningful is pushed into one distant end point, it can just as easily become exhausting. The maths can be doing exactly what it was designed to do while the player experience falls flat.

For me, this is where game design gets interesting. Mechanics, maths, visuals, audio and identity all have to reinforce the same experience.

If you are building a chaotic world, the game should behave like one. If the world is designed around danger, that unease should come through in the volatility and the way features develop, not just the artwork. If progression is central, players should feel themselves moving through the game, whether that is completing a collection, reaching a checkpoint, upgrading a feature or pushing into a more valuable state. And if you are creating something with the energy of an underground rave, the audio, tempo and feature rhythm should all carry that same energy.

That is the difference between decorating a mechanic and designing an experience. The world should not just tell the player how it is supposed to feel. The game itself should prove it.

There is no universal formula for slot entertainment. Players are too varied, too informed and too exposed to different kinds of games for that.

The challenge is to keep asking better questions about what they respond to and what makes a session stay with them after it ends. To me, that is where the next interesting ideas will come from.

By Danny Gordon, Head of Studio, DEGEN Studios