Posted on: September 28, 2022. Last updated on: January 30, 2024
Hello, Mr. Burrows and welcome to the Realgambling’s Q&A session. Thank you for taking the time to answer our questions. Please, introduce yourself to our visitors, tell us your story in the iGaming business and the background of Crazy Tooth Studio.
Hello! My name is Will Burrows and I’m the Vice President, Design at Crazy Tooth Studio®. Ben Hoffman founded CTS in 2011, bringing on now VP, Production Jason Newmark and myself to help him build an innovative new gaming studio. We got our start in the gaming industry producing land-based slot machine games for companies such as Bally, IGT, and AGS. About four years ago we transitioned into the iGaming sector, finding a great partner in Games Global, and have now released almost 20 iGaming titles with many more to come.
Could you tell us how the company adapted to the trends and changes in the gaming industry over the previous years?
Our biggest challenge, in terms of adapting to changing markets, was our transition from land-based gaming here in North America to the faster-paced, much more diverse world of iGaming. By constantly schooling ourselves in what has worked well in iGaming, listening to our publishing partner, and never shying away from challenging ourselves, we’ve managed to find an audience with each release. For us, it’s also important to balance reacting to the market and trends – whether thematically or mathematically – and innovating. Cutting our own path and producing gaming products that excite us as both designers and players will always be important to us as a studio.
CTS has been an active game investor in on the market for quite some time now. What have you been concentrating on while creating the games? To your mind, what are any defining characteristics of your games?
When we’re cooking up the next batch of games our driving force is always to make something fun and exciting with an interesting twist. I’d like to think that the defining characteristic of our titles is that each idea is fully realized. Whatever the concept, math model, or theme may be, we make sure to leave no stone unturned bringing it all the way to fruition.
We saw your latest video CTS Lab 14: 777 Super Big BuildUp™ Deluxe™. Is that really how you come up with the names for the releases? 🙂 What the process actually looks like?
Yes. That is exactly how it happens. But seriously, it’s not that far off! Sometimes we fill a dry erase board with words and phrases and see what shakes out and makes sense for what we’re developing. Of course we also have to make sure our titles are unique as well.
Do you have any fun or interesting stories behind one of your productions?
By productions, do you mean our silly videos? Because if so, they are all their own fun stories. Some specific examples:
During the Ancient Warriors™ promo video shoot, we were asked to leave a local arboretum for filming there and had to finish at a local park. However, it worked out due to the access to the river that you see Ben trying to cross.
The dummy used in the 777 Super Big BuildUp™ Deluxe™ video still hangs out at our studio and is affectionately known as Harold.
The video for Seven 7’s™ ended up taking several pies, which of course we ate.
CTS Lab 10: 3 Devils Pinball™ was shot, edited, and stars Jason, all by himself during the covid-19 lockdown! The show must go on.
Tell us a little bit more about your upcoming releases – Build The Bank™ and Bubble Beez™. Are you expecting to win over any specific target markets or player groups with your games, these or the future ones?
Build The Bank™ is a fun, sleek futuristic game that features a construction robot character that zips around, guiding the player through a shiny construction site, building some serious fun and explosive wins. This game combines whimsy, the classic shimmering gold of the casino world, and fast-paced gameplay that iGamers love. There is something here for everyone and we don’t skimp on the possibilities with Build The Bank™ featuring MEGA PILE™.
Bubble Beez™ has a mobile game vibe with casino polish and enough going on that players won’t want to stop exploring to find out what can happen in the energetic hive. The Queen Bee may even setoff a feature with her magic wand. We’ve packed in the action and cranked up the fun with our Bubble Beez™ characters and action, featuring Tumble Reelz™.
To your mind, what is the most successful release so far, and why?
There are certainly objective statistics that can inform an answer, but even that data is in constant flux due to time. All of our iGaming releases are widely available and entertaining their fans and finding new ones every day. Some of our titles that were popular from day one are: Lucky Clucks™, Aureus™, 777 Super Big BuildUp™ Deluxe™. Other titles have found strong audiences after their initial releases – such as Golden Hook™ and The Incredible Balloon Machine™.
What is your personal favourite title.
That is a tough one. Each one is so different and was so fun to work on, that it’s hard to pick am overall favourite. If it comes down to personal taste, I guess I’d have to say Aureus™. It’s so unique and fact paced – plus Aureus™ has some great dance moves.
What about the future of the igaming business – do you see it experiencing any significant changes, that may influence the course of CTS development?
We’ve been making games for long enough to have seen some trends come and go and some things really take root, but the one thing that never goes out of style is quality. We’ll keep doing our research and strive to deliver games players love to play, but no matter what the current trends are (math, theme, etc.) we’ll always hold each title to our quality standard.
Looking ahead, I wouldn’t be surprised to see more unique, specific themes out there – as with other sectors of entertainment, there seems to be an inverse relationship between a specific point of view and broad appeal. I don’t see why that couldn’t apply to gaming. Themes and experiences with a unique take on a classic theme or an entirely new vision could entice players to look closer.
Let’s talk about your hopes and dreams, plans and goals. How to you see Crazy Tooth Studio growing in the next decade? What would be the main direction of progress in this case?
We love making games. So firstly, continuing to challenge ourselves and make exciting gaming products is always a goal of ours. We have also begun to work heavily with Incisor® – a new development platform. Incisor® ties everything we do together in a way that makes for efficient, creative, and optimized development – especially for the iGaming world. That is something I’m sure we’ll be talking more about in the coming year!
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