A lot of new updates have been made to Mini Game Slot Machine since my last blog post and I’m so proud of its progress. I will do a quick recap and then talk a bit about the future updates.

Gameplay

To make the game feel more like a slot machine, I incorporated a betting system. Players can now bet up to 3 tokens to multiply their winnings. Anytime a spin lands on 2 or 3 of a kind, the player receives a score multiplier for the matching games. 

I've also removed the power ups that grant players extra time. The power ups turned out to be too easy to collect, and games could last forever. Now, players must hit the score threshold (located in the top right corner) in all three games to get extra time. 

Slot Machine Appearance

The updates to the slot machine were to simplify the interface and to only present necessary elements. I added bet buttons, individual game score screens, threshold lights, and improved the large score board text.

Reel Appearance

The original 2D reels were not exciting at all nor did they spin smoothly. Making the icons 3D, certainly gave me more flexibility to make each spin exciting. The spinning count down transition is by far my favorite update so far. 

Shaders

When I finally got my game on iOS, I realized my postprocess effects did not work on mobile, so I had to find another way to create the cel-shading effect. Luckily there was a shader on the marketplace (Cel-Shader & Outline by Lunar Garde) that does just that. The shader was easy to integrate and works on mobile. Overall I feel it looks much better too.

Future Plans

The next features I would like to add to my game is more audio and visual feedback. The current game does not celebrate the players victories enough and also does not bring attention to their failures to inspire improvement. This feedback will not only add excitement to the game, it will also help the players perform better. I would also like to rework the soccer game to be less hands on gameplay. As of now the soccer game requires too much attention; hindering players ability to play all three games at one time.

Slime Slam was the first of 9 minigame I created for my slot machine game. The goal of Slime Slam is to slide the slime to an open space under the falling platforms. As an added bonus, the player can risk collecting coins before the platforms drop. Alone, this game is pretty easy to play, but the difficulty is amplified as you manage two other games with it.

There are two other mechanics I'd like to implement before this minigame is complete. First, I'd like to increase the difficulty when the player successfully grabs the coins and gets the slime to safety consecutively. The platforms will fall in a more random pattern and each success coin collected will be worth twice as much (In fact I'd like to have scaling difficult in all of minigames). Second, I'd like to add a Power Up that freezes the platforms and spawns multiple coins for a few seconds.

These features will most likely be done by the end of next week. Hopefully I can get a build of the game on my phone soon to be sure that these mechanics work as designed.

At the beginning of 2020, I set a goal to complete at least one personal project. Typically, I would work on a something for a month before gaining a new inspiration and abandoning the current project for a new one. That must stop!!! Admittedly, I have bounced around on projects a bit this year, but I have been able to retain the majority of my focus on two projects. One of those projects I'd like to present to you today is a mobile game called Minigame Slot Machine (working title).

I don't recall how I came up with the idea but I do know I wanted to create a game that could be developed with only my strengths. This will allow me to finish development with very little outside help and less time spent watching hours of YouTube tutorials.

The key objective is to rack up as much gold as possible while playing three random minigames simultaneously. There will be nine different minigames upon completion and will all be playable with one finger. The current build has three games: Whacky Moles, Slime Slam, and Soccer Blocker (Goalie).

This game is all about doing your best. You will not lose gold for failing to balance all three games. In fact you can literally just play one minigame and try to gain maximum gold there. Your real battle is against time! Each round starts off with one minute on the clock, but the player can collect clocks to add an additional 20 seconds to their time! More time equals more gold!!!!