Exclusive Interview: Hugo Goal

Find out everything you need to know about Play’n GO’s brand-new ‘Hugo Goal’ release in our exclusive behind-the-scenes interview with the award-winning digital game provider.

Tamas, one of Play’n GO’s many talented game producers and main man behind the ‘Hugo Goal’ game creation gave us with some pretty awesome insights about how the slot was made.

‘Hugo Goal’ is the third edition of Play’n GO’s ‘Hugo’ slot series and just so happens be the perfect slot to enjoy during this summer’s football season.

What are you waiting for? Tie up your shoelaces and find out how Hugo Goal was made!

‘Hugo’ and ‘Hugo 2’ were hugely successful slot games, what inspired you to release yet another sequel? Did you develop the football theme after the fact?

We’ve really enjoyed our experiences partnering with Hugo Games A/S and working with them to come up with new and inventive game, so we were keen to continue creating adventures with Hugo the Troll for sure.

There was never a question of if we should create the next sequel of his thrilling adventures but, instead, where we could take the character and what challenges he should face.

Of course, the football theme was heavily influenced by the upcoming World Cup; it’s important to keep our games culturally and socially relevant for the players. However, we also wanted something unusual to take break away from the normal format before he continues his usual battles against Afskylia and Don Croco

Once you had the football theme locked down, how did you bring it all to life from a design point of view?

We wanted to use a different approach for this game, as opposed to the previous two sequels, so we changed the layout to 3 reels, employing a more classic slot feel. We also wanted to take full advantage of the characters of Hugo’s world, so we expanded them to fill the entire reels.

We went through a few iterations before we nailed the gameplay as it is now, but it was totally worth it to make the game simple enough to play, but also interesting, and truly fun.

I love the fact that this slot game doesn’t look like your ordinary themed football fruit machine, the design is bright, fun and light-hearted, how many different sketches did it take to come up with the final design concept?

I’m going to be honest with you, it wasn’t an easy task to bring these symbols and characters to life in the right way, to make sure we captured their full essence!

We devised at least 2-3 sketches for each symbol and each character before we got the feeling right and, even after that, the symbols went through multiple iterations to perfect the shape, texture, background and a whole host of other factors, to get to the final vivid designs you see in the game now. Before we could even begin to design the characters, the most difficult part was to choose the best ones from Hugo’s diverse world, keeping the classic characters we know and love, but also introducing someone new.

WOW – that sounds like a lot of work that goes into your slot games! So, who’s the big boss and has the final say about what designs get approved?

All of our designs and artwork come from intense teamwork, so the final look and feel of the game isn’t just down to our Art and Creative Directors, but to each facet of the team; Artists, Animators, Game Designers, all those who worked hard to put so much into this game.

Hugo is absolutely adorable, but what I love even more is the ‘Penalty Shootout’ bonus feature. Who’s the genius behind this idea?

The “Penalty Shootout” was the brainchild of Mike C, who was the Game Designer on this game, and is actually a huge fan of football and sports as well. It was really easy to work with him as we never ran out of features and ideas.

He knows every detail of football, all the teams and players in the upcoming World Cup; that kind of passion adds a little something extra, that something special, to any game you work on. There was definitely no question about who we should turn to get the most out of this game.

The slot features another two exciting bonus features, ‘action replay’ and ‘free kick’, what’s unique about those two mechanics?

What I personally like about these features, is that they offer you a second chance of winning. In the case of the “action replay” the win is guaranteed as well. The gameplay really allows you a great chance of winning, as you can trigger the “free kick” re-spin from a non-winning spin, or the “action replay” re-spin from the “free kick” bonus and even the “Penalty Shootout” bonus from the “free kick”, if you are lucky enough.

I did it myself already and it’s really very exciting! It means even a non-winning spin can lead you into the bonus game, and keep you captivated with the anticipation of turning a non-winning spin into a winning one, and getting the big multiplier on your winnings.

Can you tell me more about the whole (super awesome) team you worked with when developing this slot?

So many people worked on this game, so it is hard to mention everyone! A lot of the team also worked on the previous sequences; Hugo, and Hugo 2, so the little troll was already familiar to the whole team. Everybody has really enjoyed working with the Hugo license again, putting him into this new, sporty environment.

Can we expect even more troll fun coming our way in the future?

I wouldn’t want to ruin the surprise!