'I Want Players to Level Up': The Slot Developer Rethinking What a Casino Machine Can Be

_{Christian Gonzalez predicts the future for slots. (Image: Christian Gonzalez)}

A slot developer with more than two decades of experience across multiple international jurisdictions has argued that land-based casinos must embrace personalisation and player-controlled spending limits if they are to remain competitive with the rapid growth of online casinos and gaming.

Christian Gonzalez, of FG Game Studios in Cardiff, says the industry is at an inflection point. Players are younger, better informed, and shaped by console and mobile gaming culture, and their expectations of a slot machine have changed fundamentally since he began his career building three-reel mechanical games.

'When we first started, you know, it was all low-tech stuff, three reels, mechanical reels, not video,' Gonzalez said. 

'Now everyone you speak to wants the 4K screens, big J-curve monitors, LEDs. The sounds have got to be really important. The graphics are really important.'

That shift, he argues, reflects a broader change in what players are actually looking for. Entertainment, not just the chance of a win, is now the driving force, and developers of slots who fail to understand that distinction are building the wrong products.

Math First, Theme Second

Gonzalez is candid about the internal process at FG Game Studios. Despite the visible role of artwork, sound design, and theme in attracting players to a machine, it is the mathematical model that shapes every game from the outset.

'It almost always starts with the math model,' he said.

 'The math determines how often the player wins, the volatility of the game, how big the potential payouts can be. We may have five or six different variations of math models for one game before we test it.'

That process is complicated further by the regulatory differences between jurisdictions. Games built for North American markets, European operators, and Asian venues require different payout structures, bonus mechanics, and volatility settings, sometimes bundled into a single cabinet with switchable back-office configurations.

The collaboration between the math and art teams, he acknowledges, is not always straightforward. 

'If you've ever met anyone that's worked in mathematics and then you work with people who are artists, they're completely different people,' he said. 

But Gonzalez is clear that neither discipline leads the other unconditionally. 'Sometimes the art team have got a direction they want to go and the math team has to submit. Sometimes it works. The math guys are not perfect.'

The Case for Personalisation, and Limits

Gonzalez's most pointed comments concern the future design of machines themselves. He envisions a land-based slot that recognises the player, recalls their preferences, and, critically, enforces the limits they have set in advance.

'It'd be nice to kind of set limits,' he said. 

'I can go up to the machine and it knows who I am. It knows my restrictions. I can set those limits beforehand, before I even walk into the casino, and say: I want to play for an hour, I only want to spend X amount.'

That vision sits alongside a broader ambition: machines that function as portals for players to continue games they have already started on mobile devices, with progress saved across platforms.

'If you want to play your favourite game that you've been playing on your phone, you walk up to the machine, put a code in, and bang,  your game is on,' he said.

On artificial intelligence, Gonzalez is measured. The studio uses AI for rapid concept visualisation, generating pitch-ready artwork within hours, but he is resistant to suggestions that it could replace human judgment in mathematics or creative direction.

'AI can't replace proper mathematics and how you feel about a game when you play it,' he said. 

'That's unique to us. We'd like to feel that we know better than AI, when it comes to how we feel about a game.'

His outlook for the next five years points to more cinematic experiences, deeper narrative progression within individual sessions, and machines that offer players a genuine sense of advancement, closer in structure to a console game than a traditional cabinet.

'I want to be able to level up,' he said. 'I want stuff thrown at me that I haven't seen. I don't want to feel like I've completed the machine after an hour.'

Whether that vision translates into commercial products at scale will depend, in part, on how quickly the hardware and regulatory environment catches up with the ambition.