Inside Mirror Image Gaming’s Burst Game Strategy
Aberdeen Hinze, COO at Mirror Image Gaming, explains how Burst Games and gameplay-first design are helping operators engage Millennial and Gen Z players.
Looking In The Mirror
Mirror Image Gaming – tell us everything we need to know about the studio and the games you create.
Mirror Image Gaming is a game provider with a difference. Our mission from day one has been to create games that are fundamentally different from traditional video slots and to do this, we take inspiration from flash and console games.
With Mirror Image Gaming, the game concept comes first, the gambling element second. Our games are all about exploring new game formats the take direct inspiration from flash style PC games from the 2000s, that put players on the edge of their seats, round after round.
Of course, we do this within the regulatory frameworks set in each market we target.
The game provision space is incredibly crowded. What made you want to enter such a fiercely competitive part of the industry?
Because we identified a gap in the market and wanted to address it. Studios have become incredibly efficient at producing online slot games, but few draw inspiration from broader gaming genres – something we believe is key to engaging and entertaining the next generation of players.
At Mirror Image Gaming, we borrow from the worlds of flash games, console mechanics and physics-based gameplay to produce truly unique content that really hits with the rapidly growing and soon to be dominating Millennial and Gen Z demographics.
We have the right internal experience and technical partnerships to build game math and mechanics for these innovative gambling mechanics, that some may have thought previously impossible to do.
How do your games help operators overcome the challenges they are facing when it comes to engaging players and the content they stock in their lobbies to do this?
Operators have access to a constant stream of slot releases but these games are competing for limited lobby space and visibility. New releases often have a short lifespan, with players quickly moving on to other games. This forces studios into a cycle of rapid, incremental releases.
Mirror Image Gaming is here to break that cycle by creating fresh, distinctive content that stands the test of time. We do this by using mechanics and gameplay styles that players haven’t already experienced many times before, and we wrap them up in fun and captivating themes.
This allows casino operators to attract and engage new audiences while also providing existing players with fresh, enjoyable content.
Can you give us a bit more insight into your approach to game development and how it differs from other studios?
Most studios start with a slot mechanic and then innovate around it, but at Mirror Image Gaming, we start with the gameplay.
This sees us adapt proven and popular mechanics from PC and console gaming and combine them with gambling maths, all within regulatory requirements and in a way that is commercially viable for operators and us.
The balance between playability, compliance and maths is where much of the technical complexity lies, and where we specialise.
How do you bring your mechanics to life through the various themes and designs used for your games?
We do it through a combination of in-house game design expertise and strategic technology partnerships. A key aspect of the development of our games is our partnership with The Fortune Engine – we are one of its inaugural game partners.
The Fortune Engine provides the underlying tools and infrastructure to allow us to rapidly prototype and validate innovative mechanics, while its math solving tools allow us to develop unique math models but within the constraints of regulations and requirements.
Ultimately, by using The Fortune Engine’s templates, math frameworks and distribution pathways, we avoid having to build complex backend systems and tooling from scratch.
This means we can focus entirely on what we do best, and that’s designing engaging gameplay, developing characters and pushing forward with innovative mechanics. While we do this, The Fortune Engine is handling compliance, certification and distribution.
Why are Millennial and Gen Z players so important to operators?
Because they are the next generation of players – these are people who have grown up with flash and consoles games we used to inspire our games (not to mention our founders are millennials, so we make games we love, and assume the rest of our generation will love them too).
What we’ve found is Millennial and Gen Z players are less interested in traditional slot machines and are more drawn to interactive, player-choice mechanics. We see a clear opportunity to serve that audience with content that feels familiar from a gaming perspective, but with the added gambling element.
This in turn allows our operators to engage the next generation of players with content that hits the mark for them.
Why do Burst Games play such a central role in your strategy?
Because there’s such a long-term opportunity for the format. We see Burst Games as sitting in a broader category of fast-paced, mechanics-driven gambling experiences that are different to traditional slot games.
That’s why we are pioneering the format, and aim to be the leaders in the space while helping to define how Burst Games evolve across the wider iGaming industry over the coming decade.
What is your long-term ambition for Mirror Image Gaming?
We want to create games that players recognise, return to and talk about. We are dedicated to creating games that break away from just spinning the reels and that perform consistently for our operator partners. It’s about offering go-to experiences rather than short lived releases.
When players want to have fun playing gambling games, we want Mirror Image Gaming to be the provider they go looking for in the casino lobby.
What’s your assessment of the future of the gambling industry over the next 12 months and beyond?
It’s going to be about more than just slots and table games. We see a future where Burst Games and slot-games sit side by side in the top lobby spots and dominate the charts.
In time, we will see the introduction of complex, multiplayer gambling formats that use the Burst Game format as the foundation. This might be technically challenging today, but progress is often rapid in this industry and inevitable.
To that end, we are actively partnering with developers and innovators outside the iGaming industry to overcome these challenges and position Mirror Image Gaming as the leader in next generation gambling games and content.
