As we celebrate the release of the highly anticipated Narcos video slot, we're giving you an exclusive look at what goes on behind the scenes. We sat down with Art Director Matthew Butler and Game Production Lead Johan Stenlund to talk about the game development process, the inspiration behind the game, and what makes Narcos a strong NetEnt brand.

Can You Share Some Insights About the Inspiration Behind the Game?

Matthew, Art Director
Trying to build a game around a whole TV series is quite tough, especially since Narcos has such varied settings, characters, and timelines. We had to pick out characters and settings that would complement the gameplay, be recognizable to the player, and fit the story arc from the show. We also had the added challenge of making sure the actor talent liked their character portraits and that they fit into the game we were designing.

Can You Give a Brief Recap of the Overall Game Development Process?

The look and style of the game we chose was more stylized, a mix of 3D and hand-drawn. We didn’t want to use film or photographs in the game; we wanted to take the Narcos title further out to a gaming audience, one that would be more familiar with AAA gaming consoles. We think the style and gameplay will be just as enticing to our huge online casino audience, of course.

We also toned down the violence and narcotics of the series. We tried to make it a bit more subtle to add a lighter feel to the game. After all, it’s a slot! You’re going to be winning a load of cash as you’re hunting Pablo.

What Will the Players and Operators Enjoy the Most? What in the Game Will Make Narcos a Strong NetEnt Brand? Any New Features or Something Else?

Johan, Game Production Lead
The brand itself is, of course, a very strong and well-recognized brand. The game has a lot of features and fun things that it brings to the table:

• In the main game, you have walking wilds, which will hopefully make the game sticky. When you win on a wild, it will walk to the next reel on the player’s next spin. That gives the player an incentive to spin again and see what the wild will give them this time.
• The lockup feature—which can be triggered by landing three or more Pablos on the same row—is also very exciting, especially after we added the golden suitcases for big random prizes. The nice thing here is that the player will see suitcases landing but not always lock them in, which will help emphasize the high potential of this super volatile game mode.
• This feature takes place against the backdrop of a big shootout right out of the show’s first season. In this feature, the power of the walking wilds comes into play again. The cool thing here is that the feature will continue even after the number of free spins has played out as long as there are walking wilds on the screen.
• Any spin can bring more walking wilds into play, so the feature can go on for a very long time.

Any Other Interesting Information That You’d Like to Share?

One fun thing is that the phone booth on the left side of the main game can actually ring. At first, it would play a ringing sound from time to time, but in the end we felt it was a bit too obnoxious. Now it will just flash instead, and quite rarely at that. If the user clicks on the phone while it’s flashing, a voice that sounds like Pablo will answer. The voice-over for this was done in our studio by one of our artists who is from Spain.

TM & © 2018 Narcos Productions LLC. All Rights Reserved.