Don’t have time to head to Caesars Atlantic City for some Atlantic City casino action? No problem! One of your favorite slot games is now available to play on CaesarsCasino.com…drum roll please…MONOPOLY Plus by IGT!
You know, the one where you roll the dice, move around the famous board with your favorite childhood game piece and make your way into amazing bonus features like the Mystery WILD Bonus, Board Bonus and Level Up Plus feature!
We were lucky enough to chat with lead game designer Scott Caputo last week and learned everything we need to know before playing this game. Read the interview, below.
TAC: What was your exact role in the design of this game?
Scott Caputo: I was the lead designer. In our studio, a game designer has two functions. Both design the overall play experience: how many bonuses, what kind of bonuses, and what the features of the game will be. The game designer also develops the math behind all of these features.
TAC: Monopoly Plus is advertised as featuring “social gaming techniques” to entice players. What are some examples of these?
Scott Caputo: That is our Level Up Plus feature. As the player plays the bonus, they gain Monopoly money and if they gain enough Monopoly money, then they level up. Leveling up gives you several benefits. It unlocks more content, extra movers, and extra features. These extra features permanently increase the players pay back percentage. As far as we know, this has never been done before. We were the first. People really like this. You get a title with it. When we looked at the data we found that there were not only players that reached the top level, but had maxed out the meter!
TAC: That sounds like something ya’ll could get into, right? For players who may be unfamiliar with this game, what favorite elements from the board game did you bring to life in the slot?
Scott Caputo: I think people will find that the board bonus is very faithful to the game. You get a certain number of rolls and it is exactly the same board that you would find in the game. Different fun things happen when you land on properties and utilities or railroads. The things that can happen for you are all good.
Our twist compared to other Monopoly games is when you land on a property, it brings up a little mini, three reel slot and what this does is that it gives the player a lot of variety in the rewards they can get. We’ve done other Monopoly games in the past with board bonuses and sometimes the experience was a little flat, so we wanted to try to fix that and make it even better. So in our Monopoly game, depending on what side of the board you are on, there’s a different mini, three reel slot that appears and they get richer, kind of how the properties get richer in Monopoly as you go around the board.
TAC: Why do you think this game is a favorite among players?
Scott Caputo: For a lot of players, it’s the board game that they remember growing up. There’s an incredible nostalgia for this game. Whether people play it now or not they still have fond memories of playing it at home with their families and we really do try to give that nostalgia feel in our game. We definitely try to play up on that for sure.
In the board bonuses, you have the opportunity to choose your piece. Everyone has their own favorite token that they like whether it’s the dog or the hat and one of the things you can unlock as you level up in the game is extra movers. These movers don’t appear in the board game, but they are pretty fun! Players really like seeing these other movers. Monopoly over time has introduced many different kinds of movers and it’s a big part of the game. Having your own piece that’s kind of neat is fun to play with.
One of the other things that people love is Mr. Monopoly and one of the other features of the game is where Mr. Monopoly appears. He moves left and then he moves right, he turns a wheel WILD and then he moves again, but he fakes you out. You don’t really know how many reels he is going to turn WILD. He can turn all five reels WILD. I think players really like that.
TAC: What was your favorite part in the design process?
Scott Caputo: It was really fun to figure out what those new features should be for the Level Up Plus. As I mentioned, there are some new pieces of the board game that players can unlock. One of the features in there is the Express Train which allows you to move faster around the board. One of the reviewers said that our board bonus had the Express Train just like the real board game. It obviously seemed to fit in with it because they thought it was part of the original game! I thought that was pretty funny and I liked hearing that.
One of the other features is Hot Property where Mr. Monopoly puts on a fire fighter hat and one where you can unlock a mini slot machine on the board and whatever your token is becomes one of the symbols on that slot machine. It was fun because you feel like you had a hand in creating the slot machine because your symbols are the ones being shown.
It balances a lot of things. There’s high entertainment, but then you really feel like wins are possible. It has a good balance that way.
TAC: How did working on this game differ from other games you have worked on?
Scott Caputo: This was certainly one of the longest development cycles. The Level Up Plus game is you start with a game and pretty much have to add almost half of a game for the players to unlock. You have to have a great game to start with and extra features on top of that. It definitely takes longer to develop but it’s totally worth it.
We think so too! So if you can’t get to Caesars AC, you can at least head over to CaesarsCasino.com! The good thing is that you can start playing RIGHT NOW! What are you waiting for?! MONOPOLY Plus (and other IGT favorites like Kitty Glitter, Cleopatra and more) are ready for you!
