
By Frank Legato |
Family
Feud!
Silicon
Gaming creates a series of bonus slots premiering at MGM with
perhaps the most clever game-show theme yet.
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Strolling
the floor of the cavernous MGM Grand in Las Vegas is a mind-boggling
experiencea collage of sights and sounds that bombards the senses
with competing colors, lights, bells, sound effects, spinning reels
and clanging hoppers. Occasionally, though, something really pops out
of the din to command your attention.
There is one
huge and compelling new slot area at the MGM that you simply cannot
miss while walking through the casinoblue and gold decor, with
colorful and curious slot machines to match, spreading in a huge semicircle
from a central video wall.
It is home
to Family Feud, a new series of bonus slot games designed
and built specifically for MGM by Silicon Gaming.
Based on the
award-winning TV game show, the Family Feud series includes three separate
styles of games. One is a standard nine-line video slot; one is a multi-deck
video poker game in the Five Play format; and the other
is a re-spin video slot, similar to Silicons Hot Reels
game.
All are on
Silicons new and improved multimedia platform, featuring the powerful
computer-generated features, live video and 3-D animation that Silicon
Gaming is known for. The normal, PC-like Odyssey cabinets are replaced
by color-coordinated, slant-top cabinets modified with lights and an
extra video game board screen facing the player.
There are
plenty of machines available in each of the three configurations61
games in all, in a 3,500 sq. ft. themed area. A giant painted sculpture
of comedian Louie Anderson, host of the current incarnation of the Family
Feud TV show, stands in the middle of one circular carousel as an attraction
to the area.
However, the
film clips are what really grab your attentionat least at first.
In the center of the area, visible from practically all of the individual
games, is a wall of video on which continuous clips from the entire
run of Family Feud are shownincluding the popular original show
hosted by Richard Dawson.
Wagering
Attraction
Family Feud
is the first launch of a product designed in what Silicon calls a Wagering
Attraction package developed for a specific operator. Andrew Pascal,
the companys president and CEO, says the company plans to offer
such exclusives to other operators as a way to distinguish their slot
floors from those of their competitors.
Family
Feud is a Silicon Gaming product with a new model for a business venture
that we took to MGM, says Pascal. It fits in with their
philosophy, which is to offer the ultimate entertainment experience
to their customers. We thought we had a special concept, and they were
very excited about it.
MGM Grand,
with its City of Entertainment brand and slogan, was the
perfect venue for an attraction of this nature, says William Hornbuckle,
the resorts president and chief operating officer. For us,
it is the first significant attempt to bring the City of Entertainment
to life on the casino floor, Hornbuckle says. Weve
obviously branded ourselves with the slogan, and I believe weve
done a good job in carrying through. But on our casino floor, we are
bringing the realm of what is beyond the norm to our customers.
Silicon developed
the slot games and designed and built the entire themed area, including
the video wall, the color scheme and even the Louie Anderson sculpture.
MGM provides the ample floor space and puts its formidable financial
muscle behind the promotion of the games. (The operator leases the machines
themselves from Silicon.)
Silicons
development team knew both the area and the games themselves would have
to be special to live up to a commitment of this much floor space at
a flagship Strip casino resort. I dont know that this much
space has ever been devoted to one game, says Pascal. Thats
why we developed several different games in the theme; it had to have
a broad appeal. It is a boutique casino inside a casino. We needed people
to walk through that space knowing that whatever their interest, we
could satisfy it.
The space
itself was designed to grab the attention. You have to attract
someone to your game if you want them to spend any time with it,
Pascal says. We tried to create a strong read. We wanted people
to feel like they were stepping onto the sound stage where the Family
Feud show is produced.
For the games
themselves, Silicon pulled out all the stops in maximizing the potential
of their new platform. The development effort started with painstaking
research, according to Pascal. We looked at all the slot games
out there today, and studied symbol sets, behavior of symbols, and the
math of the games. We tried to get a sense of how the combinations were
mapped on the reels, so we would have a hit frequency and win frequency
that offer a really great game for the player.
The reel-based
games feature high payback percentages. The standard multiline video
versiona nine-line game in both nickels and quarters, available
in 45-coin or 90-coin configurationranges from 92 percent to 94
percent overall payback. The multi-reel, re-spin game is even better,
ranging from 96 percent to 98 percent paybackone of the fairest
bets on the slot floor.
This multi-reel
percentage, moreover, can be maximized by the skill factor. Similar
to Silicons Hot Reels, the screen displays three sets
of three reels each. The player must bet at least three coins to activate
all three reel sets. The bottom reels spin to a combination. The player
has the option of holding any or all of the reels and re-spinning the
remaining reel or reels to shoot for the highest possible jackpot.
The math of
the video poker versionavailable in Jacks or Better, Bonus Poker
or Deuces Wild gamesis a bit more difficult to discern. Because
of the random bonus awards, the base pay tables on the games are less
generous than video poker experts or pros will like. The payback percentages
range from 96 percent to 99 percent.
But Silicon
met an even bigger challenge in creating the masterful bonus game, which
is triggered by three special reel symbols in the video slots or by
any four-of-a-kind hand in the video poker version.
The challenge
was to create a random bonus event with the look and feel of a television
game show that is based on skill and knowledge, while re-creating the
TV experience for longtime fans of the show.
Family Feud
was created in the mid 70s by ABC television producer Mark Goodson.
It began its first nine-year run in 1976 with Dawson hosting a daily
competition between two families to guess the most popular responses
to a variety of general-knowledge questions in an audience survey.
There were
always enthusiastic shouts of encouragement from the studio audience,
as well as among the family members on each teama festive atmosphere.
Dawson would ask the questions, and a family member would give what
he or she thought most of the audience members would answer. The host
would then reveal how many of the surveyed audience members gave the
same answer. (Survey says...) Responses that matched audience
responses would appear on a large game board in order of preference;
a loud buzzer would sound if a contestant gave a response that matched
none of the survey responses.
The format
earned Family Feud an Emmy Award in 1977 and a run as the number-one
rated game show on daytime television. (The new, syndicated version
of the show, hosted by Anderson, premiered last year.)
Creating a
slot bonus game simulating all this was a bit more tricky. A large enough
database of questions and answers to maintain interest would have to
be created. The bonus awards associated with various responses would
have to parallel the difficulty of each question and, perhaps most importantly,
the outcome of the bonus game would have to be presented in a way that
was authentic enough to mask its randomness.
The new platform,
with a few new twists, was up to the task. The finished product has
a video display facing the player that lights up to look just like the
game board used on the TV showthe vertical row of plaques that
indicate the rank of each answer.
Silicon made
one of its most clever additions to the Odyssey format to add player
interaction to the bonus round. To the right of the main video screen
is a small replica of a television camera. It is a real camera that
captures the image of the player and incorporates it into the game screen
during the bonus round.
When the bonus
round is triggered, the red light atop the TV camera goes on as the
main screen turns black. A live-action video image of a stage
manager appears on a screen in the cameras window. The manager
says, Okay, player...Look over here. We are ready to go in 5,
4, 3, 2... The camera snaps the players picture as an On
Air light flashes.
The main screen
then goes into a sequence simulating the TV show. One fictitious family
is introduceda typical family pictured in an old-time portrait,
the same way contestants are introduced on the program. The familys
opponent, the other contestant, is introducedyou.
The players image, captured by the little camera, appears on the
screen. The announcer shouts the familiar, Lets play the
Feud! to the cheers of the crowd and the TV shows theme
music.
The screen
displays a survey question, and an image of the answer plaque spins
around. The player is prompted to stop it by pushing a buttonone
of the answers appears, to sounds of audience encouragement such as
Good answer! The announcer shouts the familiar, Survey
says... If it is one of the top four answers, it appears with
a ding on the board, along with a bonus amount corresponding
to its rank in the survey. If it is not one of the survey answers, you
hear the buzz as an X flashes over the bonus
board. (You also hear the audience go, Awwww.)
The
bonus round repeats with more answers until all four of the top answers
are displayed, or until the player gets three X marks. The
accumulated award then goes to the credit meter.
According
to Pascal, the Family Feud bonus game, like the slots themselves, is
the product of extensive research and teamwork.
We were
looking for something that would really attract the average player,
so we said, Lets put the people on the show,
he says. People have a romantic view of what its like to
be on a TV show, and the team discussed ways to reproduce that. Thats
how we came to what we call the On-Air Bonus.
For the bonus
game itself, the team compiled a database of over 1,000 questions and
answersall from the actual show during its entire run. Pascal
notes that while the player is not guessing the answers, the experience
of watching the show is reproduced effectively.
You
are definitely playing along, he says. The way we paced
the answers allows you to decide whether you think it was one of the
top answers in the survey. If you think it is, the anticipation builds
for a big award value.
In all, it
is a faithful reproduction of the entire atmosphere of the Family Feud
television show, and it is in one bonus game that still permits a lot
of variety in game choice for the player.
The Wagering
Attraction area is already up and running at the MGM Grand. At press
time, plans were to install the game at other MGM-owned propertiesinitially,
New York-New York and the Primadonna resorts in Primm, Nev.
According
to MGMs Hornbuckle, initial numbers have been tremendous,
with enough customers flocking to the games in the initial weeks to
more than justify the substantial commitment of floor space. They
are rivaling the Wheel of Fortune games in terms of numbers, he
says. In addition to the 61 games dedicated currently, we are
bringing in two six-game pods to be placed near the entrance on the
New York-New York side, and near the restaurant promenade.
He adds that
MGM is viewing this as the first of several dedicated areas. If
this continues as we hope, we envision two or three of these interactive
zones in the casino, Hornbuckle says.
MGM has the
exclusive on the game in its core markets, but Pascal says the company
plans to export it to markets in which MGM does not operate, such as
California and Northern Nevada.
Otherwise,
Pascal says, Silicon will continue to offer new branded Wagering
Attractions to all of the major operatorshe notes that Silicon
has secured licenses on other popular brands that can be transformed
into slot games in the future.
Meanwhile,
see you at the Feud.
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Family
Feud
Slot Type:
Multimedia video gaming machine available as nine-line, multi-coin
video slot, multi-reel video slot with re-spin feature, or video
poker game; interactive secondary bonus game on primary and secondary
video screens; nickel and quarter denominations
Payback % range:
Multiline version: 92.00%-94.00%
Multi-reel re-spin version: 96.00%-98.00%
Video poker version: 97.00%-99.00%
Average Hit Frequency:
Multiline version: Every 2-3 spins (45.3%)
Multi-reel re-spin version: Every 2-3 spins (41%)
Video poker version: Every 2 hands (45%)
Top Jackpot:
Multiline version: 20,000 coins
Multi-reel re-spin version: 6,000 coins
Video poker version: 4,000 coins
Availability:
MGM Grand Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas (New York-New York and Primadonna
Resorts pending)
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