Slot games have risen to the top of the casino world in the century since their creation. Invented in the late 19th century, their popularity grew throughout the 1900s, until they managed to become the top games at most casinos. Of course, slots hit their peak in the late 20th century, when online casinos made them available worldwide.
However, the first online slots were a bit rudimentary, and perhaps even a bit boring. While still incredibly popular, a lot of people began asking for more. Casino game developers wanted to please their customers, which is why they began diversifying their slots with aesthetic, visual, and audio themes. Thus, themed slots were born.
What are Themed Slots?
Themed slots are exactly what they sound like; slot games that have a certain visual theme accompanying them. The truth is, there isn’t really much you can do to diversify a slot game, mechanically. After all, they are simple and basic, and that is their appeal. To complicate the gameplay would lead to many people dropping the game.
But, that doesn’t mean that slots can’t be made engaging or visually stimulating. That is why, game developers that work to create online casino games have begun infusing slots with beautiful, engaging, and eye-catching visuals. These visuals usually take inspiration from other genres and mediums. In this article, we’d like to talk about the most popular themes for online slots.
History
The study of human history has been going on since the Ancient era. Humans have always been fascinated with those that came before them. For good reason too, as history can teach us a lot about ourselves, our past mistakes, and what we should avoid in the future. More importantly though, history can also be fun, if told as a story.
It is, therefore, no wonder that historical slots are such a huge success. Historical slots take inspiration from ancient civilizations, like Egypt, Hellenic Greece, and the Roman Empire. You might see symbols depicting the Eye of Horus, or the Pharaoh’s scepter, a background depicting marble pillars and a colosseum, or Greece’s incredible Parthenon.
While Egypt and Rome may be classics in the history slot world, game developers are also much more likely to explore alternative themes from history. You might find slots inspired by Mesoamerican civilizations, the Indian subcontinent, African civilizations, and the Nordic Vikings. For fans of history, who also enjoy spinning the occasion slot, then these are the ones to look out for.
Sport
Sports are a huge part of our life. Some of us practice them, some of us watch them, and some of us even bet on them. Online slot game developers particularly have insight into the world of sports betting, as many online casinos double as bookies. Which is the reason why there are so many online slots that take heavy inspiration from sports.
Football is, of course, the number one sport that inspires online slots. For good reason too, as it is the biggest game worldwide, having close to four billion followers. In slots inspired by football, you may see the symbols replaced by golden cup trophies, the jerseys of famous players, or simply the black and white football.
If you want to dig a bit deeper, you can easily find slot games inspired by some other incredibly popular sports. For example, cricket would be a pretty good pick, considering it is a game with over 2 billion fans. Especially popular in India, England, and Australia, cricket is one of the most popular sports in the world, which is why a lot of slot developers create games inspired by the game.
Genre Fiction
In literary circles, categorization is a big deal. The two big categories are “fiction,” encompassing any work dealing with creative writing, and “non-fiction,” encompassing any work written academically, about a certain subject. However, even these categories are comprised of multiple others. For example, “fiction” is often split in literary fiction and genre fiction.
While literary fiction may encompass books that deal with the beauty of language, and experimentation with form, genre fiction is much more straight forward. Here, you will find stories like Lord of the Rings, The Robot series, and most of Stephen King’s work. And it is these kinds of stories that tend to be more popular, and therefore inspire slot developers to create themes for their games.
Fantasy slots, for example, are hugely successful. Usually, they depict scantily clad warriors facing off against mighty dragons, against a backdrop of war between elves and orcs. As you can tell, the inspiration for these slots comes from films like LotR, Conan the Barbarian, etc. Fantasy might just be the most popular of the “genre slots,” but it isn’t the only one.
Science fiction and horror are also hugely influential on the slot world. Horror-themed slots are usually split into two categories: actual horror and comedy horror. Actual horror slots go heavy on the scares, depicting actual monsters, bones, graves, and more. Comedy horror tries to go the goofy route. You may see a mummy or a zombie, but they will have a funny spin on it.
Western
Once upon a time, the western ruled Hollywood. However, over the years, the popularity and interest in the western genre veined significantly. However, thanks to games like Red Dead Redemption and films like True Grit, the western genre has made, somewhat of a comeback. While not nearly as popular as it once was, there are now new fans interested in westerns in 2024.
So, online slot developers have decided to bring back the western in their own way. Like with horror slots, there are two ways that developers usually go with westerns: serious, gritty western slots, or more light-hearted ironic western depictions. In the serious slots you may see a backdrop of an abandoned town, with the symbols being guns, sheriff stars, and similar staples of the western genre.
In the more ironic slot depictions of the old west, you may find comedic depictions of a bandit and a sheriff, and symbols showing the sillier tropes of the genre, such as lassoes, goofy-looking cows, etc. In either case, both styles of slots are incredibly fun, and can provide quite an engaging experience.
Disclaimer: The above is a contributor post, the views expressed are those of the contributor and do not represent the stand and views of Outlook Editorial.
