Slot Design - Basic Composition

 

As a slot mathematician, before building the model of slots, you need to understand the basic components of slots

                                                               

 Basic Compositions of Slots

Basic Composition

Reels

The part with the icon in the center of the slots and rotating during the game are reels of slots. Reels refer to one column of scrolls with icons. When multiple reels are integrated together, they form a slot window, which is the main area where the game takes place

Only part of the reels would be seen during the game. The actual length of each reel is much longer than what you can see on the window, but what decides the results is the symbols finally landing on the windows

As a result, you can see the whole reels as the inventory of symbols, and the amount of a particular symbol on the reels decides the possibility of landing on the reel and winning the game

Not all slots have physical reels. Some of them use rate to decide which symbol would land on the window

Windows and Layout

As mentioned in the last part, windows are a combination of reels. Layout is the shape of windows.

You can normally find that classic slots have a layout such as 5-3 or 3-1. Both of them can form a regular cube. In recent years, more layout can be found and some of them are pretty hit among players

                           

Upper slots show the difference in layout in different types of slots

Though the shape varies, you can always find the reels in them. This is because most slots' paying rules are based on the paying lines/bet ways, which need reels as the foundation to differ the odds.

Symbols

Symbols are one of the key compositions in slots. They have a pattern, some combinations, and corresponding pay. When the symbols landing on the windows match any combination, players can get the corresponding credits

When you combine all symbol's pattern, combinations and odds, you will get the paytable of the slot

You can add other rules on paytable too

Common elements of symbol patterns are poker elements such as 9, 10, J, Q, K, A, spades, hearts, clubs, squares, and classic icons such as 7, 777, and BAR. You also need to add more symbols that can show the theme of the slots, and that is what makes your slot different from another one from the very beginning

The spades, hearts, clubs, squares also re-designed in order to highlight the theme

There is no particularly strong rule for the design of slot icons. Generally, when choosing an icon, the main considerations are the adaptability of the theme, the familiarity of the player with the icon, and whether the icons with different payout multipliers can be clearly distinguished

Operation Area

In offline products, the entire row of buttons below the Slot is the operation area

You don't need much operational skills to play a slot. Compared to complicated button settings, the clarity of them is much more important to slot.

In most cases, you just need a button to spin or stop, and other buttons to choose the bet would be enough. If it is an offline slot machine, you also need the place to cash out and top up

For some line slots, you can also choose the bet ways the control the hit frequency and the bet amount