Squealin’ Riches is one of the newest video slots in the Microgaming lobby. Coming from PearFiction, the game is all about opulence, wealth, and good fortune. Playing around with the concept of the piggy bank, Squealin’ Riches has a great optimal RTP of 96.05%. In today’s article, CasinosOnline talks directly to the slot creator – PearFiction’s CEO, Thierry Semoff. The independent gaming studio has been working with Microgaming since 2020. In just over a year, the studios launched quite a few notable titles. Join us as we take you on a ride and share exclusive info about the new Squealin’ Riches online slot.
- Hello, and welcome to CasinosOnline. We make sure to deliver the best, most authentic gambling-related content to our readers. Firstly, could you introduce yourself, please? Tell us about your position in PearFiction.
Greetings and thank you so much for inviting me to talk about PearFiction and our games. It’s truly appreciated! I'm Thierry Semoff, founder and CEO of PearFiction Studios. I've been in the iGaming industry for just over five years, having started in 2016, when we made the switch from making mobile games to online casino games. Although I wear many hats as CEO, my primary responsibilities are to lead the studio's game design, pipeline, and direction.
- Before we talk about the newest game, we’d like to take this opportunity to also congratulate you on Chicago Gold, one of the best-performing slots on our website. The game has been live for almost a year now. Has it lived up to your expectations?
That's so nice of you to say! Indeed Chicago Gold™ has exceeded our expectations. It was our first exclusive game for Microgaming, and it has been amazing to have such a successful game out of the starting gate.
It has been eight months since Chicago Gold was launched and the game is still going strong. Chicago Gold boasts some of the best player KPIs within Microgaming's portfolio of games.
- Now, as for the topic of today’s talk – Squealin’ Riches slot. How did the idea for this specific theme come about? What inspired your team to make a pigcentric casino game?
At the early stage of the game design, we had thought of sprinkling the base game with some nice random modifiers. We wanted to build a game with a central character that would be the game host/star. So the piggy bank idea came along.
Throughout the game, Piggy will jump on the reels to introduce random modifiers, such as adding an additional free spins symbol to trigger the feature, adding piggy gold coins to trigger the LockNWin™ game, upgrading the jackpot values, and other special modifiers that you will have to play to find out.
- From a technical standpoint, we see that Squealin’ Riches boasts both free spins and the bonus wheel. Could you tell us why you went for these special features specifically?
We wanted to have more than one big potential feature for players to chase in this game. As a result, we balanced the game with a free spins game with a hit rate of one in 231 spins, and a bonus wheel with a hit rate of one in 300 spins. We often talk about the players and the road leading to the bonus features. Our goal with Squealin' Riches was to also make that journey for players as varied and thrilling as possible. The free spins or bonus wheel are a big part of that game thrill.
I will go through each feature to show you what makes them unique. The free spins game has more piggy gold coins, more chances to land a LockNWin™ game, and more chances to land a Jackpot prize in this feature. The fun can also keep going since landing three scatter symbols will retrigger the free spins feature.
The bonus wheel has the potential to award any of the available jackpot prizes, in addition to other instant cash prizes and a chance to trigger the free spins game. Every piggy gold coins that lands on the reels, whether it triggers LockNWin™ or not, is collected and added to the bonus wheel progress bar. Once the progress bar is completely filled, the bonus wheel feature is triggered.
- It is possible to win over 13,512 times your bet by playing Squealin’ Riches slot for real money. Could you tell us how players can win this potential prize?
This 13,512x maximum potential win can be triggered in the Squealin' Riches' LockNWin™ feature. That feature mechanic has been designed with a few features that go well beyond a simple Hold & Respin game.
Coin multipliers and jackpot upgrades can land in the feature to make it even more exciting. Multiplier symbols, as their names indicate, multiply the value of any piggy gold coins symbol present on the reels by up to 10x times their value.
The jackpot upgrade symbol is even more exciting. When they land they increase the value of all five jackpot levels, upgrading each of them to the value of the tier above and potentially making the Epic Jackpot worth double its initial value!
For example, the default value of the Epic Jackpot is 5,000x your stake. A single upgrade symbol will increase the Epic Jackpot value to 6,000x your stake. Upgrades can land frequently; landing five jackpot upgrades during a LockNWin™ game would surge that Epic Jackpot all the way up to 10,000x your bet.
- The new PearFiction slot is hands-down adorable. Tell us about the color palette and outstanding symbols in the game. How do you expect these will influence the players?
Piggy is quite the charmer! It was important for us to create a game that would appeal to different types of players, from casual players to tenured ones, and that would please players of all demographics.
In terms of the color palette, we try to use warm colors and symbols that have a lot of bling and value. It’s a common thread for all our games to boost the color saturation up to eleven. It's crucial to never lose sight of the fact that we're developing real-money games, and emphasizing the value of the game features and symbols is truly important.
- What are your overall expectations from Squealin’ Riches in comparison with your previously launched titles?
The bar was set high with Chicago Gold and Blazing Mammoth. With all the love that when into building this game, we truly hope for Squealin' Riches to follow the footsteps of our previous games. Currently, the game is live exclusively and it is performing amazingly well. Actually, it’s outperforming both Chicago Gold and Blazing Mammoth. Ideally, the KPIs will hold and the game will become our players’ favorite.
- Could you tell us more about PearFiction’s roadmap for the rest of 2021 and perhaps the beginning of 2022? What great ideas are coming ahead?
This has been a very exciting year for us, and we have an amazing roadmap ahead. We intend to release about eight titles between now and the end of 2022. It might be less, but in the end, quality is more important than quantity.
In the short term, you will see PearFiction pushing the edge of instant jackpots/prizes and SwiftHits™ mechanics with 15 Tridents™ coming out by the end of the year. We will also dive deeper and boost our LockNWin™ mechanics in Q1 2022.
- Finally, is there anything else that our readers should know before we say bye for now?
Thank you so much for this opportunity and interview CasinosOnline! It’s amazing to have the opportunity to present our studio and games to your readers! We have a lot of exciting games coming out in the coming months. We are truly looking forward to seeing players enjoying our games throughout 2021 and beyond!
You can learn more about what's happening at PearFiction Studios by visiting our website https://www.pearfiction.com/ or following us on Facebook and LinkedIn.
