Slots: The Appeal of Simplicity

The increased speed of computer processors and internet connections has allowed online casino games to become almost arbitrarily complex. You can live stream human dealers and croupiers, animate multifaceted user interfaces, and even fully change the gaming space between hands, spins, or rolls of the digital dice.

But even as the average number of bonus features per slot grows and the rule sets for new machines become increasingly Byzantine, the players and publishers of slot machines seem to return to simplicity over and over again.

That’s not to say beautiful and complex games like Yggdrasil Gaming’s Viking’s Go Berzerk have no place, but rather than simple games continue to hold a place alongside them.

Design and Psychology

The perennially popular one-armed bandit-style slot game is a great example of simplicity done well.

Every publisher at some point seems to produce a three-reel by three-symbol slot with fewer than ten winlines (often as low as one). These simple slots frequently even use the old one-armed bandit symbols — lucky sevens, bells, cherries, and bars labelled “bar”.

There are good design principles at work here. As a recent article on PokerStars points out, simplicity is a boon when played on a mobile or tablet where screens are smaller, and the mouse cursor is always as fat as your finger tip.

Fewer buttons also mean straightforward interactions and simple animations make for a less cluttered, easier-to-read screen.

The latter also saves on time. A simple spin and win animation (sometimes made faster by the inclusion of a fast-spin mode) means less downtime between spins. Even things like bonuses and cascade features, which keep the pace of the action up, slow the player down.

If time is short, simplicity can be a synonym for volume when playing slots.

Simple, Not Simplistic

That said, simplicity doesn’t have to mean “simple”.

Some game designers manage to inject a lot of depth into their slots without letting the game become busy or impenetrable.

Ensuring that gameplay is clearly and quickly signalled to the player is a big part of this. So is using established slot conventions to keep the buttons and animations intuitive.

There are even games that manage to use this framework to generate innovations. This is often done by using features that connect to the game’s theme or setting, like the gunslinger bonus games in Dead or Alive 2.

If you want to try out some simple slot games, PokerStars Casino has a huge library of slots and table games, as well as generous welcome and loyalty bonuses.

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