What probably seems like a simple question actually has a long and complex answer, and as much as we hate to be the bearers of bad tidings, the news isn’t great for the new-game entrepreneur. (Note: While the process outlined here is specific to machine games -- the arena in which we have more contacts when it comes to game development -- many of the general concepts also apply to ideas for new table games.)
For starters, any slot machine that’s based on an existing TV show/movie/board game/celebrity etc. has to be licensed from the copyright owner, and that’s a difficult and expensive proposition. Most household names have already been licensed -- from "American Bandstand" to "Alien," Elvis to Elvira, TABASCO to "The Twilight Zone" –- and if a popular brand hasn’t been licensed yet, it’s probably because the owner doesn’t want it to be.
Even if a license is available, you may find that the game manufacturers aren’t interested. Back in the 1990s when games like Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! took off, the slot-manufacturing companies were falling all over themselves to license every popular name, regardless of the asking price. But it soon became apparent that these gimmicky games had a short shelf-life. People quickly tire of a game if it isn’t fun to play, and just having an attention-grabbing logo or familiar face isn’t enough to keep the players plunking in their coins. In short, the game makers got burned buying up expensive licenses that didn’t pay off.
These days, if your idea involves a third-party license, you should be prepared to obtain the rights yourself before approaching any game maker if you want them to take you seriously. They apply three golden rules when assessing a new game's viability. Applying these rules to your idea should help you assess its chances for success:
Let’s assume the answer to all three is "yes" and that you either a) somehow manage to license a popular old TV show or b) come up with a cool and unique idea for a game that doesn’t require any third-party license. The next step is to make sure no one else can steal your idea or beat you to it independently. To do that, you’ll need a patent. Without one, or at least a patent pending, it’s unlikely that a company like IGT or Aristocrat (the current market leaders for slots) will take you seriously, because they can’t afford to develop an idea that isn’t protected. You’ll need a good specialist attorney to make sure that your patent is watertight, and the whole process can take a couple years or more and isn’t cheap (count on costs being in the neighborhood of $10,000 or more).
Getting the interest of the game makers is the next big challenge. Perhaps the best way to go about this is to attend G2E, the Global Gaming Expo held annually in Las Vegas. This is the biggest casino-industry marketplace, where all the major players are represented, so it's a good opportunity to introduce yourself and your idea to the right people, namely executives in charge of intellectual property and/or game development. The show takes place in a hectic environment and no one will have much time for you, so make sure you're prepared in advance. An industry insider offers the following advice for maximizing your prospects:
And as if all that isn’t daunting enough, there’s one more depressing fact we have to hit you with, and that’s that around 99% of all new slot games are developed in-house, by dedicated teams of specialist math wizards and engineers who do nothing but invent new games all day. This suits the manufacturers, because it means they own all the rights to all these games and don’t have to split the profits with someone like you, and because their inventors know all the ropes and will avoid the kinds of pitfalls that an amateur is likely to fall into. So, hammering your way through the door is a tough proposition, and even if by some miracle you do manage to get that far, you’re looking at around another couple of years before your idea is developed and ready to hit the casino floor. So don’t even consider quitting the day job!
Okay, so that’s the bad news. We do have one little true story to add which we hope might cheer you up, however. It’s about a guy named Ernie Moody, who back in the early '90s was a stockbroker in Colorado. But Ernie didn’t want to be a stockbroker: His burning ambition was to invent casino games. So, he broke the cardinal rule and quit his job to dedicate himself to this quest for the next "big one."
After seven years of very limited success, his savings were sorely depleted, and Ernie seemed no nearer to hitting the jackpot. Then one day, as he sat at his coffee table dealing poker hands to himself, Ernie suddenly had a flash of inspiration: Why not have a video-poker game that deals more than one line to the player, so that even if you don’t get that great hand right off the bat, you still have a couple more shots at it? It prolongs the punter’s excitement, while giving the casino triple the action per hand dealt. That was the birth of Triple Play, and the rest, as they say, is pretty much history. Ernie took his idea to IGT, just when they were desperate to get off the gimmicky third party license games, and they liked his idea. So, evidently, did the public: Triple Play took off like wildfire to become the second most popular game in slot history, after Wheel of Fortune, and transformed Ernie virtually overnight into a multi-millionaire (his "office" now is a disused hangar at McCarran Airport, with room to park his fleet of classic cars and his private jet).
So, the moral of the story is that even though it’s very, very, very tough to invent a new casino game, it’s not absolutely impossible. And if you can afford to keep banging on the door, you might just hit the jackpot one day. In the meantime, think of Ernie every time you drop your quarters into a Triple Play machine, and remember that just occasionally the "little guy" does overcome the odds, however much they’re stacked against him.
