You might have noticed that we have often written about Yggdrasil Gaming’s Game Engagement Mechanics, or GEMs, as they call them, but we have never put them all in one place and shown what all of them do for the players and gameplay.
What Are GEMs?
GEMs are Yggdrasil Gaming’s innovative mechanics that are designed to enhance the players’ gaming experience and increase the winning potential of each game that features one of them. Yggdrasil says that GEMs are “designed from a player’s perspective to perform”, so let’s see what each of them brings to players and how they influence the gameplay.
DoubleMax™ and DuoMax™
DoubleMax™ doubles the multipliers on cascading wins without limits, so this GEM is actually a doubling multiplier that allows players to multiply their wins many times. The most popular Yggdrasil title that features this mechanic is Raptor DoubleMax™, where every consecutive win doubles the multiplier with no limit.
DuoMax™ powers the Florageddon! DuoMax™ slot where the single multiplier (like in the DoubleMax™) turns into two multipliers, one on each side of the reels. With two multipliers, the chance of multiplying the win doubles for a chance for even bigger prizes.
FastPot5™
Games with this mechanic have five potential jackpots, all of them progressive, increasing with each bet. When a jackpot hits, it resets to the initial value. Elysian Jackpots is the game that features this mechanic, with a jackpot above each of the five reels. Jackpots are unlocked during the Free Spins game when players have the chance to score major wins.
GigaBlox™ and GigaRise™
GigaBlox™ introduces oversized symbols that can reach 3x3, 4x4, or even 6x6 fields in size to build winning formations on the reels. The giga symbols appear from the first spin, increasing the winning potential of each bet. The first title with this mechanic was Lucky Neko GigaBlox™, and there have been quite a few until the latest one, GigaGong GigaBlox™.
GigaRise™ presents the massive symbols that rise to cover the entire reel instead of building a square on the reels. When special symbols land, they increase up to the height of the reel, and the height persists until the maximum height when the player unlocks Free Spins or other bonus games. Atlantean GigaRise™ was the first game that featured this mechanic.
MultiMax™
MultiMax™ feature accumulates multipliers on the reels. When a win happens, all reels with contributing symbols add a corresponding multiplier to the overall win. The first release with this mechanic was Multifly! where each multiplier was increased if it was paired with a Wild on that reel.
Splitz™
Splitz™ is a GEM that splits mystery symbols to award more “more ways, extra scatters, longer lines, or bigger clusters” to players. The Splitz™ symbol is the one splitting for bigger wins, and in the initial title with this mechanic, Temple Stacks, the Splitz can split for over 200,000 ways to win.
TopHit™
TopHit™ mechanic adds an additional horizontal reel on top of the playing grid, directly influencing the outcome of each spin. Starfire Fortunes TopHit™ was the first title to introduce this GEM, and symbols can be nudged to appear fully on the TopHit reel if they don’t do so in the regular spin to create more chances for big wins.
WildEnergy™
WildEnergy™ Wilds come with lives attached to them, and they get activated when they help create a winning formation on the reels. Wilds then become sticky and trigger as many respins as the number of lives attached to them. Ragnawolves WildEnergy™ is a title powered by this game engagement mechanic with Wilds that can carry up to four lives or respins.
Wild Fight™
Wild Fight™ is a mechanic that allows any higher-paying symbol to turn into a Wild. This triggers a fight animation where a high-paying symbol fights another character, and if it wins, it turns into a Wild. The feature is triggered randomly or when a specific condition is met during the game.
Now that you know a little more about these game engagement mechanics, you can pick your favourites and try them out in one of Yggdrasil’s exciting titles.
