Have you ever heard of the games called Dead or Alive, Gonzo’s Quest or Starburst slot machine? If you are Indian and reading this I doubt you have – but if you’re from, let’s say, the United Kingdom, then you’ve most likely done.

Gonzo’s Quest, Starburst and Book of Dead are three of the most popular 3D slot games on the internet. Nowadays animations are everywhere, most of Bollywood movies produced today which has some type of animations. And it does not necessarily have to be entirely in 3D-animations like Kochadaiiyaan, but just special effects such as car explosions, dancing sequences, etc.

But what is required to make animations for an online slot game – we have compiled a new version of our previous article, the life of a 3D slot animator. 

All you need to know about 3D animations for online slot games:-

To get your career going for animations of slot games you need some kind of relevant experience or minimum a bachelors degree. In India, there are several universities with relevant programs, such as;

• Amity University, Mumbai – BSc- Animation & Visual Graphics
• National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad – Several different programs ranging from Animation Film Design to Graphic Design
• IIFA Multimedia, Srinivasanagar – BSc in Animation & Multimedia

A self-thought designer can stand a chance, but then you need a big portfolio of previous projects which are relevant to creating casino games.

Tasks to expect

As an animator for online slot machines, you can expect to do 3D models, creating animations, poses and sometimes intro animation videos – depending on your companies’ and projects budget. The theme, however, is created by a designer who you are working closely to.

Every slot game has a designer who does not only create the overall theme but also designs the bonus games and the desired emotion an effect of a big win should look like. Even if you are working close to your designer you will have a lot of freedom in the animations you do. The designer will tell you whether the animations should look more goofy or cartoony. But the rest is up to you.

Timeline for a casino game project.

This usually depends on the budget of the slot game and which game studio you work for. Each year there are 100’s of online slots produced over the world with NetEnt, Microgaming and Play ‘n Go being the leaders. 

These game studios can produce up to four to five games each month.  Smaller online casino game developers releases, such as QuickSpin or Nolimit City, can develop one new slot machine per month. Therefore, as a 3D animator, the project timeline is short compared to computer games. Usually, one to three months for each project, if you are not working on an exclusive casino game for an online casino such as LeoVegas. Creating exclusive online slot games means you are developing it side by side with a partner. When you are co-creating projects the partner usually requires several iterations and this can result in a lengthy project.

 

As an example, LeoVegas developed a casino game called Scruffy Duck and was cooperating with the slot game studio NetEnt. This project took about six months to complete since LeoVegas had several criteria to fulfil. Therefore, NetEnt decided to allocate fewer designers on the project than usually, but who worked for a longer period on the slot game. The result is a slot, where you can quickly tell it’s not up to the normal standards of NetEnt and far from what LeoVegas represent themselves as a brand. One could just imagine NetEnt wanting to take the slot game one way and LeoVegas stubborn, since it was there game, seeing it takes a direction towards something else – in the end, it’s a mix of broken promises, ingenious details, good to half-good features that together create this slot called Scruffy Duck!

Online casino games are a new phenomenon in India. Poker and Rummy have grown a lot the past year and slot machines on Facebook. You will see advertisements every day about it. However, many people don’t know how casino games work.

Guide 2 Gambling is a free source of information about playing online casino and the different games available. If you want to know more about this topic, check out their website.