Interview: PO Amit Samji, speaks with SlotCatalog on our approach to creating games
Amit Samji, one of our talented Product Owners, recently spoke with SlotCatalog about our approach to creating top-quality games. He also gives some insight into what Push Gaming is all about, as well as some information on our exciting new release for the summer.
Welcome Amit, please introduce yourself to our readers.
My name is Amit Samji, and I’m a product owner at Push Gaming. I’ve been at the company for more than two years, and love what I do here. Land-based games are my main inspiration when it comes to creating our titles and have greatly contributed to my work on Wild Swarm and Jammin’ Jars.
In my free time, I like to read, with Omerta by Mario Puzo being a particular favourite of mine. When it comes to films, I’m a great fan of Guy Ritchie, especially Snatch and Lock Stock. 300 is also another classic!
Tell us about Push Gaming and your history at the company.
Founded in 2010 and licenced in multiple jurisdictions, we boast a diverse portfolio of market-leading slots, which has elevated us from a rising star to a major player when it comes to designing and creating outstanding, cutting edge slot games.
This year has seen us grow and build momentum on our own platform as we’ve gone live with some big names in the industry, such as GVC, William Hill, Wildz and many more yet to come. This has continued to help solidify our presence across key European markets.
I have been with the company for over 2 years now, and am a product owner for many games, with the likes of Wild Swarm and Jammin’ Jars to name a few. I’m really enjoying my time with Push Gaming and I’m proud to be part of a company that is thought of as one of the industry’s most exciting developers.
What do you believe to be the key factors towards Push Gaming’s success?
We are truly passionate about creating brilliant games that provide the best entertainment possible. With a focus towards quality over quantity, our dedication to the creation process has ensured our games truly stand the test of time and are not quickly forgotten with other new releases.
This means that we place a lot of emphasis on game themes that are exciting, mechanics and features that are innovative, as well as pitch perfect art and top sound effects. In addition to this, we have also worked with some of the best operators in the industry who have helped us to get our content across to our players in various markets. This has helped us to ensure that our catalogue offers a wealth of proven chart toppers across Europe.
What is Push Gaming’s vision / company strategy?
We know and love games and want to provide the best entertainment experience possible to players. We truly believe in creating content that is different from the rest and provides a memorable experience. To do this, we dedicate a lot of time and effort into the development of each and every game. We are not afraid to take risks and try out something that has not been done before!
Great games that stand the test of time require dedication, which is why we also follow a quality over quantity approach. Many providers focus primarily on getting out as many games as possible, that are not particularly extraordinary and soon get forgotten – we’ll never do that at Push Gaming. Our more long-term approach has proven to be effective as we have steadily built a very strong and loyal following and our games continue to be firm fan favourites even after many months of their release.
What is Push Gaming’s corporate culture?
We’re a fun, young team that keeps on growing. With offices in London, Malta and Ukraine, we all work seamlessly together both virtually and in person. We frequently visit each other’s offices and have as many company-wide meetups as we can.
I'm proud to be at a studio that actively encourages creativity and freedom of expression. It is important for our teams to take ownership of their projects and grow both personally and professionally. We work hard but always have a great time together, enjoying each other’s company through our numerous social events and activities, and there’s honestly no place I’d rather be!
Could you inform our visitors about your upcoming releases? What makes them stand out from the market and your previous games?
Our next release is Mystery Museum - a 5x3 slot that takes players on a mysterious adventure in a museum that’s filled with relics and treasures.
Like most of our slot games, this one is highly volatile and has an RTP of 96.58%. It includes 10 win lines and some well-loved features like free rounds and mystery stacks. In this game, we’ve also included an exciting power gamble feature never seen before in any of our games!
With a chance to win up to 17,500x, this game has got some awesome potential and will really captivate players with the anticipation brought about from its features, as well as its unique theme and intriguing sound effects.
Razor Shark has been a huge hit, especially in Germany. Why do you think the game is so appreciated among players?
From the market research we carried out, we noted that the shark theme was largely untouched which gave us a good opportunity to create a game that was engaging, fresh and unique for our players to enjoy.
We are constantly looking for new narrative ideas and we felt the ocean’s biggest predator with its presence and power was the perfect theme. Sharks offer a type of thrill that’s quite unique, and we wanted to bring some of this excitement into our games. This is also why, along with the packs of sharks, we added broken diving equipment and other small details to show that the game would keep players on the edge.
Like with all our games, we always put our own unique twist on it. The Nudging Stack Mechanic has proven hugely popular and we’ve taken that to a new level of excitement to the game and offering the chance for super wins.
Also, to ramp up the excitement of the Mystery Symbols even further, we added the Golden Shark symbols to the Mystery Stacks. When the Mystery Stacks reveal the Golden Shark symbols, each of these has the potential to land massive prizes of up to 2500x or a Scatter Symbol to trigger the Free Games Feature.
What companies do you consider as your strongest competitors?
I don’t mean to sound arrogant, however I feel that as long as we continue to focus on creating the engaging games that our players know and love, we don’t need to worry about competition. Of course, we certainly like to be, and are, inspired by other great minds in the industry. I personally, like the work that No Limit City creates, and always look out for their latest releases.
Which of their releases or features have inspired you and why?
I quite like No Limit City’s base game feature on Deadwood. The game follows a group of gunslinging bounty hunters through the old Wild West, and the Sheriff Badge symbols along with a multiplier can throw out some decent wins.
Why should players play your games?
We've established ourselves as one of the industry’s most exciting and innovative game developers thanks to our winning combination of stunning graphics, intelligent maths and state of the art game mechanics.
Having an exciting theme and stunning graphics is what attracts players, but it’s the gameplay that keeps them engaged. We place a lot of emphasis on making games that are truly unique and that stand out from the rest – and our legion of fans is testament to that.
We strive to create games that are always different and engaging and offer something different to the player that they have not yet experienced. As a quality-driven slot provider we only produce a few games per year in order to ensure quality and innovation in each game.
Each of our slots includes a unique feature to ensure added value to each operator’s casino lobby, and we experiment a lot with different mechanics, and place a huge amount of time on prototyping, all to get the best possible outcome for each of our slots. That often means we have to push ourselves to the limit, but we’re not afraid to take risks in order to achieve a top release that continues to live on – and I truly believe that our players recognise that in us.
How do you see the gaming industry evolving over the coming years?
With more and more markets bringing in legislation, suppliers are going to be under more pressure to further support operators in their pursuit of meeting regulations in a time and cost-effective way.
Slot developers are going to need to ensure their offerings are not only exciting and engaging, but also tailorable in some way to meet these regulations, whether it’s RTP or another measurable. It won’t be easy, but if studios and operators have a close enough relationship, I see no reason why they can’t continue to make gambling a safer place while retaining that excitement and entertainment factor that we all love.
The original article may be found here: https://slotcatalog.com/en/read/interviews/Push-Gaming-QA-with-Amit-Samji-Product-Owner
