Welcome Åke! Could we start off by giving the readers some background about who you are and how you found the iGaming industry?

Yes of course, I’d be happy to! My name is Åke Andre and I am the CEO of Foxium, a creative game development studio with over a decade of gaming industry experience based in beautiful Tallinn, Estonia.

My journey into the iGaming industry began in the early 2000s, during the poker boom. I started off as a poker player, before spending time as an affiliate and then getting involved in turn-key solutions, operating as a poker skin. I’ve been running my own companies since 2008, and as an entrepreneur, I’ve basically focused on exploring different opportunities within the iGaming industry.

Three of my friends and I started our journey producing slot games in 2015, the year in which Foxium was founded. Together, we grew the Foxium team to include an incredible mixture of creative experts, combining compelling themes and captivating storytelling with innovative gameplay mechanics and 3D graphics. It’s very easy to recognise a Foxium game, with our key ingredients consisting of innovative gameplay, gamification, and unique and modern game graphics. Our game portfolio includes games such as Adelia The Fortune Wielder, The Great Albini, Boom Pirates, and Stumpy McDoodles, with 3 Tiny Gods scheduled for release later this month.

That’s a long time and a lot of accumulated experiences from different angles. What sparked your interest in developing slot games?

While playing casino games has long been a passion of mine, it’s a huge leap from having an interest in games to starting your own studio. I think the inspiration in developing my own slots really started when speaking to some friends in the industry, who had successfully established their own studios, which are still very much present today. It was during this time that by coincidence, longtime friend and former colleague Daniil Sanders, contacted me to see if I would be interested in building slot games alongside him, Maria Dementieva and Igor Vesselov. We realised that together we had the foundations of Foxium, and so we took the leap to produce our first slot game!

Being a casino player must have been helpful for you in terms of imagining what the games should look like and how they should play. What do you think was the biggest lesson you learned within your first year of launching Foxium?

Absolutely, it certainly helped, not least because it also resulted in me becoming the biggest critic of our own games – this is because I hold our games to the highest quality standards. When we started our journey at Foxium, we thought we knew everything about building slot games, but nothing could have been further from the truth! We learned so many lessons during the first year, it’s impossible to mention them all.

Looking back to our first ever game, Big Time Journey, we still wonder what on earth we were doing! While the game had a nice theme, decent art and was successful in terms of acquiring players, we were so focused on getting our first game out in the market, but we really could have benefitted from spending more time and effort into the overall gaming experience to ensure player retention.

The key lesson I took away from this was to always ensure that I have a flexible client framework to work with during game development, a framework that does not limit what you are trying to build.

Big Time Journey was originally supposed to have some cool features as players could time travel to different ages, but we had to scrap all of that – the game itself isn’t even half of what it was supposed to be.

Foxium has always been a storytelling oriented studio. We had a lot of visions of how we should differentiate ourselves, but the core essence of making a good, sticky slot game wasn’t quite there yet. Let’s be honest, that’s something we learned by producing games.

A lot has happened since 2015 and I understand you learned a lot from your first release. Would you say there is another game where you felt like you learned a lot or raised the bar?

At Foxium, we are constantly looking for ways in which we can raise the bar of our games. Data has evolved tremendously over the years and has been instrumental in helping us optimise and enhance our games. We started publishing our games via Odobo and then NYX, and the feedback and data during that time was nowhere near on the same level as we have now. Switching to Microgaming was the game-changer for Foxium, as we are able to measure KPIs on a different level, which has helped us to better analyse the performance of our games: what is working, what is not working, and adapt and optimise accordingly. For example, we learned so much from developing The Great Albini and were able to take those learnings and apply them to Boom Pirates and its buy-in feature. We also decided to delay the launch of Boom Pirates as a result of this, which looking back was the right decision!

I figure the data and feedback help out a lot to verify what works and I know we saw The Great Albini sticking in the lobbies for a long time after the release, as well as Boom Pirates and Stumpy McDoodles. You’ve done very well with these releases! Which one has been the most successful for Foxium or is the one you are most proud of?

Thank you! I’m proud of Boom Pirates and Stumpy McDoodles for very different reasons. We really pushed the boundaries in Boom Pirates.There was an appetite in the market for more winning combinations on each spin, so we introduced the 10 million ways to win into this game as we wanted to push ourselves and see what was possible, and I’m proud of what we have accomplished.

With that said, I do think there are improvements and enhancements that can be made to Boom Pirates.I think every game developer thinks about what they could have changed or done better, but it is through this gained experience that we continue to grow and improve our future output.

I think it is hard to create the perfect slot game. Game developers should always strive to improve with each release, ensuring the next game is better than anything else that has come before it. It’s then that you know that you’re moving in the right direction.

Definitely! Before we leave the importance of feedback and data, I would like to ask you if and how you use SlotCatalog?

Yes, I use SlotCatalog, and I have to say that I’m impressed by what you guys have done. You identified a gap in the market and created a platform to enable users to analyse and access publicly available information around slots, including slot rankings in the lobby and country breakdown, in one place – all of which I find very useful! While it will never paint the entire story, SlotCatalog allows you to identify which types of games or mechanics seem to be popular in certain markets.

What’s the ambition for Foxium going forward?

We want the market to recognise Foxium as a brand that produces highly polished, entertaining and sticky slot games – that is the ultimate goal!

Starting from next month, our aim is to release a quality and polished lineup of at least six games to the market per year. Feedback from operators seems to suggest that they appreciate the strategy we’ve taken, and we look forward to providing them with new exciting games from Foxium.

Speaking about that, what do you think will be the key aspect to get the games to stick in the casino lobbies in the next two years? Do you see any trends or important changes that will be crucial?

Players today expect a high level of entertainment value when playing slot games. It is important for game developers to ensure they are delivering on that, together with very solid math. Each spin has to be exciting for the player. Then, depending on the market, the volatility of the game should also be a consideration.

In Europe, we are seeing higher volatility games with win potential of 10,000+ times the bet. This trend looks like it will continue and is worth considering when building games for some time to come. The majority of players will be playing on a mobile phone and in portrait mode. Looking back, we at Foxium certainly could have done more in this area with our previous games. That’s all changed, and you will be able to see even more improvements in our upcoming releases.

Are there any competitors that you are impressed with or inspired by?

Looking at some of the games coming from Elk, Yggdrasil, Quickspin, Big Time Gaming or Play ‘n’ Go, I applaud them for the things they’ve done well. It is great to see when someone releases a new mechanic or a great game that raises the bar in the industry – that inspires me.

The ultimate goal is to move the industry forward, delivering better end products to the consumers.

Do you have an interesting story behind a game of yours, like how you came up with a game concept, etc.?

Our creative director Daniil Sanders is amazing at coming up with new cool ideas for games. He often listens to music as he is running on the treadmill and that’s his “go to” place for finding inspiration and ideas for the next game. The Foxium team brainstorm ideas and decide which game will be added to the production pipeline.

The birth of our upcoming release, 3 Tiny Gods, came from one of these typical casual brainstorming sessions. We wanted to give “powerful gods” a different spin to showcase that even a tiny god could be powerful. Even though the Ancient Egypt theme is commonly used in the iGaming industry, we felt we could give 3 Tiny Gods that special Foxium touch to make it stand out. In the end, we decided to go with Anubis, Bastet and Horus for this game.

All three gods have game-changing powers that align with the game’s special features, such as the Wrath of Anubis adding an entirely new layer to free spins by removing low-paying symbols and awarding extra spins, creating an exciting and dynamic gameplay experience. The jackpot mini game offers players the chance to earn one of three tiered jackpots. 3 Tiny Gods global launch is set for 25 August via Microgaming.

Ok, so this interview is coming to an end. Is there something you’d like to say before we say goodbye?

Thank you for this opportunity! I also hope everyone stays safe during these times; it will be great once all of this is over and the industry can host proper events again. I look forward to seeing all my friends and family in person soon.