Now that our two Deal or No Deal games are finally out in a number of casino locations across several states, one can take a breather and look back at the trajectory of these titles.
We started working on the project around May of 2017, right after the licensing deal got signed with Endemol Shine.
The license did not allow much wiggle room, as it only extended to interpreting the Deal or No Deal property in the context of a skill-based casino game, such as poker.
Consequently what followed was a grueling design-process filled with torment and gnashing of teeth, as we tried to reconcile the already plentiful limitations of the game show property itself with the additional – and completely unrelated – limitations of poker, in a desperate attempt to come up with something non-horrendous.
As it is often the case, the severe limitations turned out to be a major benefit, acting as a catalyst that provided clarity and focus to the design effort.
I think the end-result is two superficially similar, yet very different games that not only do justice to the license, but are genuinely fun and innovative games on their own as well.
Both games were developed internally by the Game Studio team, with those legendary guys at 5518 Studios contributing the 4 awesome hostess girl character models and animation.
Deal or No Deal Poker Special is the multiplayer variant of the game, running on our Model G™ 4-player interactive table platform. It combines our tried-and-true twitch-poker mechanic used in Gamblit Poker with the gradual elimination of briefcases and the payouts they carry, which is a signature element of the game show.
The result is a high-energy competitive experience, and a wild roller-coaster ride of trying to track down and claim the highest remaining prize:
Deal or No Deal Poker is the single-player variant running on our TriStation™ multi-game system, and even though it shares the general look-and-feel with its multiplayer sibling, it’s actually a very different beast under the hood.
It’s a slick video poker game with an up to 5x multiplier and 2000x top pay, but it’s enhanced with a very unique “Banker’s Offer” feature (another iconic element of the game show), a decision point which often creates some truly edge-of-your-seat moments:
The game was recently covered by the tremendously popular Wizard of Odds player community site.