THE DROP TEST DRIVE: IGT’S PORTAL LINK AND PORTAL LOOT
The Journey through the Portal begins!
IGT’s Portal Link, and SAP release Portal Loot, is a derivative of Outgrow but is significantly enhanced for an even better player experience. While still focused on traditional poker machine game design, these games are starting to step towards a video game in style, making these games accessible to an even wider audience, by creating adventures that players become involved in through world-building and incredibly intricate design detail. They still retain the vital elements of poker machine games but introduce unique concepts and ideas and push the limits of innovation.
There are four games in the Portal game range: Wild Deer, Wild Treasures, Wild Whale and Wild Wolf. The ‘Portal Feature’ is the common element across all games while a respin feature is unique in each game.
The Basics
Denomination: Player selectable 1c, 2c, 5c, 10c, and $1 in all states, plus $2 in NSW.
SAP / Link Profile: For Portal Link, which will be released first, there is a choice of a $10,000, $15,000 or $25,000 Grand Jackpot start-up. When presented as the SAP game, the Grand Jackpot start-up for Portal Loot is $5,000 or $7,500.
The Portal Feature:
The Portal Feature is consistent across the game family. To trigger the free games the players must achieve six or more portal symbols, where they are awarded 1 free game for each portal symbol. During the free games, the players can retrigger even more free games with three or more portal symbols and add extra free games to their tally, helping them to build their credit prizes and open the portal.
The ‘Portal’ is represented at the start of the portal feature with a blue border around the screen. The aim for the player is to open the portal and turn the border gold by being awarded more than 20 times their bet through the free games, and this is done by accumulating the prizes from their line wins. So, if a player is betting $1 per spin, they need to get $20 awarded during the free games to open the portal.
In this feature, players need to land the special ‘wild creature’ symbol which places random wild positions across the screen. One of the nice art features of the Portal game family is that the wild positions are windows that provide a sneak peek for the player into the portal scene to try and find the wild creature. The more symbols they land the better, with some even dropping on the screen in stacks. Once a player opens the portal all credit prizes will be awarded at the end of the feature. If a player fills the screen with all 15 wilds, they collect x2 on all their line wins.
If a player fails to open the portal in their free games, (i.e. they don’t achieve 20 times their bet) they enter into a second chance feature. In the second chance feature, players can win the Mini, Minor or Major Jackpot, other credit prizes or bet multipliers by matching 3 symbols, and then selecting one of the coins to display their award.
The game is narrated for the players as they move through each stage, so they have a great understanding of where they are in the game journey at all times.
The Respin Feature:
The respin feature is unique across all four Portal games. Players need 6 or more coins to trigger the respin feature. Players can be awarded any of the progressive jackpots in the respin feature. They can land the Major Shot, Minor Shot or Mini Bonus Shot, or the Grand Jackpot if they fill the screen with 15 coins.
Wild Deer: In this game, the feature is a traditional hold and respin style game with cash on reel amounts on each coin where the players start with three respins and each time a coin is landed the respin count resets to three.
Wild Whale: In Wild Whale the hold and respin game occurs where each coin landed resets the respins count to three. If the coin symbols cluster together, they join, and grow to be an increased credit prize. All cash on coin amounts will be revealed at the end of the feature, with players needing to select the larger coins to reveal.
Wild Treasures: Wild Treasures is a hold and respin feature with a new game mechanic built in. In the top box random prize amounts scroll across the screen and include credit prizes and bonus amounts. In every respin, the top screen will scroll first and a prize land in the centre. Then, any coins that land in the main screen during that respin will be awarded the top screen prize.
Wild Wolf: Wild Wolf is a hold and respin game with a new player select element. In the initial trigger of 6 or more coins, they display a credit prize amount. During the respins, the other coins that drop onto the screen remain concealed until the end of the spins. The players then choose one of the coins to reveal the credit prize which will duplicate to all other hidden coins. Players will also see the other possible prizes on offer had they chosen differently.
Player Fit and Positioning: The Portal games are medium to high volatility games, with a frequent 1 in 62 feature hit rate. These games will have plenty of interest for your upper tier players, but the cinematic elements and artistic details in the game will be fascinating for the low tier regular players as well. As a game family that is suited to a wide range of players, a high traffic bank mid floor would be the most effective position for the Portal games.
Purchase Considerations and the O-Link advantage:
As the Portal Link and Portal Loot (SAP) games are the first release games for IGT’s new PeakDual27 machine this product will be a new machine purchase for all venues. For this reason, it makes sense for a gaming manager to feature this game as a link, so the machines can be banked for maximum aesthetic appeal.
IGT has developed a new link concept, the O-Link which enables venues to link the grand jackpot across multiple themes; currently Outgrow and Portal Links, with others to follow next year. The O-Link gives the venue additional flexibility, will reduce jackpot liability, and will help drive the jackpot increment by consolidating jackpots for both Outgrow and Portal Link games under a single Grand Jackpot. For venues this means no additional hardware costs for a new link, and for players they can now choose a link jackpot with a range of different themes and game mechanics rather than being forced onto a single theme.
To be the first in your area with these new games contact your IGT Representative
