Developers in gaming are always innovating and looking to come up with new ways to tweak their games and make them appeal to different people. A quick look at slot games will show the ridiculous levels of choice people have when it comes to themes. Slot game themes can focus on the futuristic or the historic and even the bizarre. Themes can be pretty odd, and sometimes there are themes that are hard to work out. Why has Mexican food become a theme, for instance? People like all sorts of different things and slot machines can be altered to suit different graphic and audio themes.
What Makes a Popular Theme?
Popularity can be tough to get to the bottom of, but some themes are more explainable than others. Fruit machine slots, for instance, can be traced to the early days of slot machines.
Traditionally, many people play slots with fruit-style themes, which is partially due to the fact that these were some of the earliest slot machines. When one-armed bandit-style machines were the main way people played, there were fewer options. Fruit machine themes have stayed really popular when there are still loads of different themes that can be explored. In fact, even a lot of the games with other themes may still use some of the cherry symbols people associate with slots.
Early slot machines may have been adapted from similar machines that gave out prizes in the form of sweets or gum, and the images may have even represented the flavors.
Other contributing factors are clear. Themes tend to be visually interesting, and often they are even colorful. Think of the fact that some of the themes revolve around things like space, or animals, you can see how the galaxies or the natural world provide certain visual aspects that work well on screen. Similarly, visuals might be important, as people may have the sound on and want this extra audio interest. Developers always create soundtracks for slots these days and the theme might take this into account. A jungle theme is likely to have tribal drums, for example.
People may also like slot themes that have a story to them or incorporate some form of characters, such as slots that focus on ancient myths. Zeus and other gods and goddesses may be symbols that appear on the screen.
Besides the fruit theme that is so popular, let`s look at some of the other popular slot themes on the market.
Ancient Civilizations
Zeus may reign down thunder, or ancient South American civilizations like the Incas may be explored in ancient civilization slots. Gods and monuments from these civilizations are able to provide added visual aspects and there may even be some traditional instruments and sound effects used in the soundtrack to the game overall.
Seasonal Slots
People get really into certain seasons and times of the year, and slot developers have worked this out, offering things like festive variations on certain slot games. Christmas slots really become popular in the festive period but there are many more than just Christmas slots. Halloween may be the second most popular due to the fact that the spooky visuals and sound effects can be very immersive.
Animals and Fishing
Animal themes can cover a huge number of the different slot games on the market, including games with a fishing theme, and those that are based in the jungle or outback. Animal slots can give developers cool visuals to work with. Fishing themes will have different types of fish but also things like tackle boxes and a setting like a lake or the ocean.
Themes can also make way for mini-games and we see this a lot in slot games that feature animals. Fishing themes may have bonus features focusing on catching a different type of fish.
American animals feature heavily in slots with bison and beasts of the American wilderness being some of the popular symbol selections for these types of games, but animal slots span pretty much any animal imaginable.
Irish Slots
“Luck of the Irish” is a saying that goes back hundreds of years. Irish slot games have loads of intriguing features and imagery, too. For example, the mythical leprechaun character features in loads of slots as well as iconic clovers and rainbows. Irish-themed slots tend to have a focus on rolling green hills as the background and may have Irish instruments playing in the background and giving a jolly yet traditional, folk sound.
Conclusion
Slot games can be about many subjects. You may not have realized just how many games there were out there with themes like zombies or Mexican food - slot developers like to get creative. Thousands of games exist on the market already, so it is not difficult to see why there`s a demand for new ideas and more themes.
