We sat down with Todd Haushalter, CPO of Evolution Gaming, to ask him about the development and features of Crazy Time, the latest game show in the provider’s portfolio. This thrilling live wheel game features four different bonus games and is Evolution’s most action-packed live casino game to date.
The game builds on the success of the popular wheel games Dream Catcher and MONOPOLY Live. What was the inspiration for Crazy Time and how did you come up with the idea?
Crazy time is the third member of our award-winning money wheel game category. The inspiration comes from our first ever game show, Dream Catcher, which we launched in 2017. This was born out of the idea to begin creating a more interactive game to attract a new generation of online players, those who had never played Live Casino.
We utilised the familiar lucky wheel concept, where the main aim is to have the flapper land on your chosen bet segment. With Dream Catcher, the magic happens when the flapper lands on one of the two special multiplier sections: 2x or 7x. When one of these hits, all bets are locked and potential payouts are multiplied. We quickly realised this was something players loved – the thrill of the multipliers and the potential to win big were an instant success with players.
MONOPOLY Live built on this concept further with the addition of something never before seen in Live Casino — a separate bonus round, which takes players on a unique journey into the MONOPOLY world, where they have the opportunity to win huge multiplied amounts. Players now lived in anticipation that the wheel would land on either 2 ROLLS or 4 ROLLS. This game is super popular and had shattered all company records for player numbers as well as the most amount of prize money paid in any one game round. This excitement is something we wanted to replicate with the creation of Crazy Time.
Evolution says that Crazy Time is the craziest, most fun casino game ever created. How many bonus games are there in the game, and what is your personal favorite?
Crazy Time is at another level compared to our previous games and a totally new venture. There are four exciting bonus game rounds, included in it, they are:
Cash Hunt: A shooting gallery featuring a large screen with 108 random multipliers. Each player selects their own target in this interactive bonus round.
Pachinko: We’ve built a large Pachinko wall with a multitude of physical pegs. The game presenter will drop a puck and the players will win the multiplier where the puck lands. If the puck lands on a ‘DOUBLE’ multiplier, all the multipliers will be doubled, and the puck will be dropped again — until a multiplier is won! The puck can be dropped again until the multipliers have reached the maximum 10,000x multiplier.
Coin Flip: Red or blue – let the coin decide! A coin with a blue and a red side is flipped, and the side that is facing up when the coin lands wins. There’s one multiplier for the red side and one for the blue side.
Crazy Time: Behind the red door is a crazy and fun virtual world with a gigantic virtual money wheel. To start the bonus game you choose your flapper: green, blue, or yellow. The game presenter starts the wheel by pushing the button. When the wheel comes to a stop, you win the multiplier where your flapper points. If any flapper points to a ‘DOUBLE’ or ‘TRIPLE’ value on the wheel, the multipliers will be doubled or tripled, and the wheel will spin again. You can only take part in this round if your chosen flapper stopped at a ‘DOUBLE’ or ‘TRIPLE’. The wheel can be re-spun until the multipliers have reached the maximum 20,000x multiplier.
It’s a tough job to choose my favorite! The bonus games are all great games in their own right and offer a ton of exciting avenues for the player.
The Crazy Time bonus round really does live up to its name – we guarantee a crazy time for players when that bonus game hits. The bonus world is beautiful and full of rich graphics to immerse you completely. There’s also the chance for big multipliers and lots of suspense where you have to choose your flapper.
In Crazy Time, each round can have a random multiplier to a number or a bonus game. What’s the highest multiplier, and what’s the highest possible win in the game?
The Top Slot above the physical wheel in the main game attributes a multiplier on each spin, to either a segment on the wheel or a bonus game. If the flapper lands on the same game as the Top Slot, then the multiplier is added, giving even more excitement before the bonus game has even begun! The maximum Top Slot multiplier is 50x.
The multipliers available in each bonus game varies, with the maximum multiplier available in Coin Flip of 5,000x and Pachinko of 10,000x. The Crazy Time bonus game is filled with crazy multipliers with the possibility for crazy multiplied winnings. For example, if one of the three flappers stop at ‘DOUBLE’ or ‘TRIPLE’, all the multipliers on the wheel will be doubled or tripled. If you chose this flapper, you’ll take part in a re-spin with the chance to win even bigger multipliers of up to 20,000x! But our largest multiplier is available in the Cash Hunt Bonus game, where you can target a hidden multiplier of up to 25,000x with winnings capped at €500,000!
Creating a game with this many features and moving parts must have been a challenge. Can you explain the process of developing the game and building the set, and how long it took?
Absolutely! So, this game will have had approximately 150 people working on it, by the time we launch. There are about a dozen who agonise over every detail of the game for months beforehand, including our Product Owner who leads the development team. Then we have a few key game and studio designers, plus hardware engineers that bring all the quirky game elements that we dream up to life, such as the custom-built coin flipper or Pachinko wall. I could go on and on but trust me, there are many experts that bring a game like this to life across months of development.
Finally, do you have any tips or tricks for players who are new to Crazy Time?
The beautiful thing about Crazy Time is that it is extremely easy to play, you need no prior experience to be able to play this game, it’s all about sitting back and enjoying it right then and there!
Experience Crazy Time in our Live Casino lobby today!