Microgaming Staff Idea Becomes a Reality
As Microgaming released its Emoticoins video slot game at partner casinos such as 32Red Casino last week, few fans of the game know the full story behind this new slot title.
The roll out of Emoticoins slot was an exciting event for the Microgaming group as a whole, but especially for two members of staff whose idea it was to create a game based on emoticons in the first place.
Anna McChesney and Rob Mercer originally pitched the idea of an emoticons based slot game at the Microgaming Idea Factory in June 2016.
At last year's Christmas party, the pair were thrilled to learn that they were among several winners of Microgaming's Spark Award 2017 and just one month later, Microgaming's creative team started the creation of a prototype of Emoticoins slot.
Emoticons as a Universal Language
One of the two members of staff who thought up the idea is Anna McChesney who works as Microgaming's PR Manager. She explained why the idea of using emoticons appealed to her and Mercer to create a new game.
"As a marketer, to me the use of emoticons in social media and communication is fascinating;" she said, "they have essentially become a universal language! 92% of the world's online population use emoticons, so developing a themed game would automatically target the demographic of our operators' players."
At their pitch to the Microgaming Idea Factory, McChesney and Mercer showed how using emoticons in Facebook posts increases the number of 'likes' by 57%, while the emoticon featuring tears of joy has become the most tweeted emoticon to date, featuring in over 16.5 billion tweets.
Creators Love Final Slot
Both Mercer and McChesney were thrilled with the final version of Emoticoins slot that went live this month at Microgaming casinos.
"It was amazing to see what they did with the research and background we developed," said Mercer. We really love the completed game!"
Players can check out the fun, colorful and upbeat Emoticoins slot at partner casinos and try their luck on the reels of this game.
Friendly, familiar faces greet players, who get to enjoy two new wild features in the base game and free spins, namely the Wild Blast and Wild Stickers.
The minimum bet in this game is 0.30, while up to 92,000 coins can be won.