Exclusive interview with CEO and founder of Quickspin casino slots provider, Daniel Lindberg

We are super excited for you all to read this article, as we were lucky enough to have an interview with one of the best casino slot game providers out there. They are a Swedish game studio which develops high quality video slots for the online gambling market. They are extremely well known in the casino industry for their immense creativity and for releasing some of the most epic slot games currently out there!

Can you guess which company I am talking about yet? If you guessed Quickspin, then you’d be correct! They are known for their innovation, their passion, and of course their talent. I think that all of us, as loyal casino players know how much we admire a very well done slot game, and we tend to notice which games stand out from the crowd, Quickspin’s slots no doubt stand out in that area.

Quickspin has a portfolio that is worthy of a king’s approval, and they seem to never be scared of standing out from the crowd

I think that this is a fantastic asset, especially for a video slot provider and creator. One of the key elements that I love about Quickspin is the fact that they seem to know what us players want, and what we want in online casino games which is usually quite hard for slot game providers to know.

Some of my favourite games in their current portfolio are Big Bad Wolf which was a massive hit with most Quickspin fans, Sakura Fortune, Sugar Trail, which to be honest made me pretty hungry! And not forgetting their latest release Leprechaun Hills with the magnificent colours and magical theme! I have so many favourite slot games from them it is pretty hard to choose my absolute favourite.

Anyway, as I mentioned earlier, we are absolutely thrilled about this article because it’s an exclusive interview with Quickspin’s CEO and founder, Daniel Lindberg. Thank you very much Daniel for giving us the time to answer our questions about your fantastic gaming company! Now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for, let’s get into the questions…

The interview with Daniel Lindberg

Which character from all of the slot games you have created would you say is your favourite, and why?

Daniel: That’s a tough one – and like trying to choose your favourite child! I’ve always liked the three little pigs in Big Bad Wolf, which was one of our first big hit games. But characters like the elegant Asian princess in Sakura Fortune, which we released earlier this year are great too and highlights the diversity of our portfolio.

I’m also excited about the return of Goldilocks next month. Fans of our games have been playing it for a few years now, but we’ve revamped it in HTML5, made it available in portrait mode, and added our Achievements Engine. She’s an old favourite who’s been smartened up for the next generation of players.

How do you make decisions about slot game themes? Is there a specific department, or do ideas get thrown around from various different departments?

Daniel: There’s no simple answer to that, in all honesty. Sometimes it’s a maths model or a feature that we like and want to build a game around. On other occasions, it’s something in popular culture or folklore that we like and think will resonate with players too. We haven’t really done branded games so far, but I’ve heard it being said that a number of our titles, like Big Bad Wolf and Goldilocks are such familiar characters that they feel like branded games.

Funnily enough, we have a game coming out in August with a cowboy theme called Sticky Bandits. The inspiration for that came when a few of the guys had a movie night and played some of their favourite old films with some beers and popcorn. It has more than a little resemblance to Bonnie and Clyde, or Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. You never really know where the inspiration is going to come from!

What would you say ‘makes’ a team? For example, what would you say the most important element of being a team in the casino slot game world is?

Daniel: I think having a shared passion is always a great start. Our passion at Quickspin is slots, that’s why our slogan is quite simply ‘we love slots’. It is what drew us all together in the first place, and also what keeps us going because we’re all players ourselves. The industry is very competitive, and people are producing great games all the time, but I think that passion and hard work has really helped us keep our content fresh, whilst still remaining true to our beliefs. We go into work every day with the desire to create the perfect game. We’ve made some good ones, but we’re still getting out of bed in the hunt for that perfect one.

How many people does it take to create a slot game at Quickspin?

Daniel: Quite a few. If you think about the number of moving parts involved in taking a slot from the drawing board to the online casino, it’s more complicated than it looks. Obviously, you have the artists and mathematicians who work out the look of a game and the maths under the bonnet, then there’s the sounds guys who create the music and sounds, and the testers, who make sure it’s spot on before it goes out of the door. I’ve never actually sat and counted them, but it’s not one man behind a computer screen that’s for sure.

Has there ever been an occasion when you have completed a slot game, and you wished that you had changed something about it?

Daniel: Yes and no. We’ve often had a game and tried literally dozens of maths models before we’ve been happy with it. Sometimes we’ve not been happy and thrown it in a drawer because we didn’t think it was good enough. You can’t afford to put poor content out, so we don’t. All games are of a time and place, and if we were doing some of them again we might tweak them. Goldilocks is a good example where, as I’ve mentioned, we’ve gone back and made a good game even better with gamification and technology which we didn’t have access to when we first went live.

What advice would you give to someone who is looking to work at Quickspin? What are some examples of the criteria you need?

Daniel: We’re always looking for good people and the door is always open. I’d say the most important thing is that love of slots and a passion for what we do. As a team, we all get on very well too and I think that espirit de corps is an essential ingredient to our success. If you’re going to sit and watch the clock go around waiting for home time, or are in it just for the money we’re probably not going to get on!

How do you get ideas for the music and sound effects for your slots?

Daniel: Not a great answer, I’m afraid, but, again, there’s no single place. It can be a tricky one to get right. Some people like to play with the sound off, but for others it is an essential part of the immersive experience. You need music to be catchy without being annoying because players are going to hear it a lot, and you need sound effects to build the sense of anticipation around different parts of the game. Sound is often a very important part of the winning feeling that we all want to experience. The music heralds the good times.

What would you say the slot game that you are most proud of is?

Daniel: Not easy to choose. But I think a game like Big Bad Wolf, which won a number of industry awards, really put us on the map. We never had any doubts in our ability to produce good games, but a slot like that really gives you confidence. Rather than one individual game, however, I’d say that I’m proud of our range of games. There is a lot of variety, with more on the way, and that takes time and effort by a great team to generate.

Is it more difficult to create slot games which are available for mobile than it is for desktop games?

Daniel: We develop all of our games in HTML5 now so they work very well in whatever channel players choose to play them. But obviously the more limited real estate of most mobile devices means you can always recreate exact replicas of games from desktop. But the important thing is to produce the best experience on each and every device, so that players can transition between them at different times of the day and night without noticing a particularly big change.

What do you think has made you such a worldwide success in the slot game casino world?

Daniel: Producing consistently good games that players in lots of different countries like to play, not just when they’re new but for long periods of time. I think there are lots of studios now who can bring out a good game, but it’s about doing it month in month out. We have ten new games scheduled for this year and I’m very excited about seeing the reaction from players. At the end of the day it’s all about them. Keep the players happy and everything else is easy.

What would you say is the most gratifying aspect after having finished a slot game?

Daniel: Seeing it being played and seeing the reaction of players. You nurture these games for sometimes months on end, but you eventually have to wave goodbye and let the world loose on them. There’s a real buzz at Quickspin when we launch a new game and there is nothing quite like seeing it climb up the rankings with our operator partners. It’s all the inspiration we need to get the next one out of the door.

What is one element that you always like to add into your games?

Daniel: Fun. Slots are a form of entertainment, just liking watching a soap opera or football match, and people want to be entertained. We lead busy lives and life can be tough at times. You want to relax and play a game and forget about things for a while, so they need to be fun. Obviously, people want to win life-changing sums of money, but they realise that’s not going to happen every time they play. A game has to be rewarding in its own right, therefore, if people are not having fun playing, then games designers have missed the point.