A first look with CPO Todd Haushalter: Evolution unveils brand new games at ICE London

Evolution has unveiled a suite of brand new casino games at ICE London 2023.

In conversation with iGaming NEXT, chief product officer Todd Haushalter described the inspiration behind some of its biggest upcoming title releases.

Funky Time: The next generation gameshow

The biggest title unveiled by Evolution at ICE was Funky Time, its fourth generation gameshow title utilising the firm’s proprietary Digiwheel technology.

Evolution acquired Digiwheel in 2021 and now uses the product to power its Monopoly Live, Monopoly Big Baller and Crazy Time gameshow titles.

Haushalter described those releases as the first, second and third generation of Evolution’s gameshow content, with Funky Time set to offer a more volatile playing experience with the potential for higher payouts.

“The inspiration came from Crazy Time, which is the world’s most popular online game,” Haushalter told iGaming NEXT.

“Everybody asks us ‘when are you going to do another Crazy Time?’ and we came up with this disco idea. Crazy Time is a carnival, and Funky Time is a disco.”

The game features several elements previously seen in Evolution’s wheelhouse, including the use of bouncing balls for bonus rounds, and interaction between live dealers and virtual characters.

One major difference between this and previous gameshow titles is the number of betting options available – with Funky Time offering 17 separate bet spots, as compared to eight on Crazy Time.

“Everybody asks us ‘when are you going to do another Crazy Time?’ and we came up with this disco idea. Crazy Time is a carnival, and Funky Time is a disco.”

Haushalter is convinced the added complexity won’t deter players because the increased number of betting options means higher payouts for winning players.

“So you’re constantly seeing either bonuses or 25/1 payouts, whereas in Crazy Time you so often see payouts at 1/1, 2/1 or 5/1,” he explained.

The expanded betting options on offer are the result of the development of the continued gameshow genre, Haushalter said.

“We would never have started out with a gameshow that has 17 bet spots, but this is our fourth generation wheel game, so I’m comfortable with it.

“Lightning Roulette has 37 bet spots, and does really well, so I think Funky Time is going to be pretty consumable.”

He said that customers who currently place $2 bets across several bet spots on Crazy Time will likely split up their stakes and bet across a broader range on Funky Time.

“Because they’re going to be hitting all the time. I can’t hit that point hard enough,” he added. 

The product has been in development for the past 18 months and will be released to customers in May.

Usually, a gameshow title takes around nine months to develop, but the added complexity of Funky Time led to a significantly longer development process, Haushalter said.

Changes to Digiwheel’s hardware and making the bouncing ball element consistent all contributed to the increased lead time for the product.

But it has been time well spent, Haushalter insists. The CPO has high hopes for the product upon launch, and says he does not even want to release any new slot titles during the same week it comes out. “I don’t want to be up against Funky Time,” he said.

By way of comparison, Crazy Time typically sees between 15,000 and 20,000 players concurrently at any given time, whereas a typical new game launch would see around 1,000 concurrent players take part on its first day.

For Funky Time, Haushalter said: “I am dreaming that on the first day, something like 4,000 or 5,000 concurrent players will take part right out of the gate. If that happens, it will beat any previous record by around five times. So yeah, expectations are high.”

Turn up the spice: Extra Chilli Epic Spins

Next on Evolution’s new product releases was Extra Chilli Epic Spins – the second “live slot” product from Evolution following the launch of Crazy Coin Flip last year.

Building on Big Time Gaming’s Extra Chilli slot game, Extra Chilli Epic Spins introduces a live studio element to traditional slot play, creating a more varied playing experience with an additional social element – as individual players will be betting on the same live bonus rounds at the same time.

“It’s going to build this community of people that are all trying to achieve the same thing together,” Haushalter explained. “And there’s not much to do when you’re playing a slot, right? So you just sit there and chat.”

“We relied a lot on the people from Red Tiger and NetEnt for everything, from graphics to the way reels spin, to the way reels stop. We didn’t previously have any of that knowledge in-house at Evolution.”

The game’s live elements will also introduce new play mechanics such as the use of a physical piñata connected to a virtual replica, which responds to the exact speed and velocity at which a live dealer strikes the piñata in-studio.

The combination of live dealer games and traditional online slots is the result of Evolution’s acquisition and diversification strategy over recent years.

“We grew up making live games, not slots, but now we finally have that in-house expertise,” Haushalter explained. 

“We relied a lot on the people from Red Tiger and NetEnt for everything, from graphics to the way reels spin, to the way reels stop. We didn’t previously have any of that knowledge in-house at Evolution.

“And in all of our games, we don’t ever want to just put a screen up there and have someone stand in front of it and just talk about it. That’s not our mission. 

“We want to infuse physical elements, and we want to combine the worlds of live casino and slots. I think for example the idea that you can bet behind your favourite streamer or something like that is cool, sure, but that’s not what we’re trying to do.”

Evolution CEO Martin Carlesund has already underlined the need for improvement in both efficiency and game production across slots and RNG this year.

The firm’s 2022 RNG revenue increased by 5.1% to €268.4m annually, but was still below expectations with Evo targeting double digits.

Looking ahead in 2023

Haushalter insisted there are more live slot games in the pipeline for this year, but remained tight-lipped on the details.

“We’ve got a handful of Asian games coming, we’ve got another handful of gameshows coming up, and we’re going hard into roulette innovation,” he teased.

“If you think about it, Evolution hasn’t done that much in roulette. Obviously, Lightning Roulette is the biggest game of all time by GGR, but we’ve kind of let that one breathe. Now, we have some intensive roulette innovation coming up, and it’s going to be very cool.

“And then we’re going to do another half a dozen first person gaming games from our RNG suite.”

“We’ve got a handful of Asian games coming, we’ve got another handful of gameshows coming up, and we’re going hard into roulette innovation.”

Between slot studios Red Tiger Gaming, NoLimit City, Big Time Gaming and NetEnt, Evolution will release around 100 new slots games over the next year, Haushalter said, in part by doubling the content output from NetEnt. This follows on from 88 new game releases last year. 

“I’m also excited to say that half of the games that we’ll be making on the NetEnt side are going to be eligible to have the world class Red Tiger jackpots on them, which a lot of operators have been asking for.”

For now though, Haushalter’s focus is on the May release of Funky Time. 

“I think it’s going to be a moment in gaming history, I really do,” he said.