Bryan Upton, Lucksome: “We plan to further diversify our portfolio with some incredible themes, mechanics and features”

Focus Gaming spoke with Bryan Upton, founder and director of Lucksome, about the company’s growth in the last year and its future prospects.

Exclusive interview.- After leaving NetEnt, Bryan Upton decided that he wanted to do something on his own. He founded Lucksome, a company that consistently grew during 2022 and expects to continue to enlarge its player base with new features, mechanics and the variety of its games.

Can you tell us a bit about your background?

I graduated with a Master’s degree in 3D Art and Multimedia application design. Initially seeking jobs in Video Games or TV, I unexpectedly landed a position as a Game Artist at a Gambling start-up. Since then, I’ve had a dynamic journey in both land-based and online casino industries.

Most of my education and knowledge came from GTECH, which later became IGT. Working with the teams on land-based casino games and hardware exposed me to advanced game design and slot mathematics. I also had the opportunity to explore various markets and product verticals, ranging from street market AWP and VLT games to premium products on Vegas casino floors. This experience provided me with over 5 years of expertise in product and content strategy methodologies and game design.

After my time at IGT, NetEnt offered me a chance to apply my knowledge to the online space. This introduced me to the exhilarating innovation and fast pace in Malta. Now back in the online industry, I face the challenges of a rapidly evolving market, complex regulations, and fierce competition. After leaving NetEnt I want to start something small but full of talent and ideas, with the help of friends at Blueprint Gaming Lucksome was born.

How have the last 12 months been for Lucksome?

2022 was a year of growth for us. We managed to consistently grow our player base and saw more players returning to play our games. Two of our best releases were in 2022 which were Saint Nicked and Bon Bomb Luxpots. The performance of Bon Bomb Luxpots, which is still a popular title amongst our players, proved to us that there is still an appetite for candy-themed slot games. We wanted to pair this beloved theme with a powerful mechanic.

Our recent title Treasures of the Dead had our new Hyperlines mechanic which the players loved and we wanted to carry the excitement of growing multipliers into Bon Bomb Bonanza, giving birth to Hyperboom, growing multipliers on a Scatter pay game.

Bon Bomb Bonanza Hyperboom is your next release; what can you tell us about this game?

Bon Bomb Bonanza is a 6×5 scatter pay game for 8+ symbols anywhere on the reels. We’re introducing a new and unique mechanic in this game, Hyperboom. The Hyperboom meter collects the winning symbols from win streaks to grow the Hyperboom multiplier.

The meter resets if you have a spin without a win. The multipliers are uncapped and applied to all wins from the spin when activated, the best thing; the multiplier only resets when it is applied to a win, otherwise, it can keep growing! In Free Games, multiplier progress and multiplier are not reset during the entire session, so the multipliers can hit huge levels.

Much like Bon Bomb Luxpots, Bon Bomb Bonanza is anchored around the candy bombs. We’ve kept the feature in Bon Bomb Bonanza as well but halved the cost! Players can buy the free games for 150x the bet and get a free retrigger if their win is 30x or below the base bet. Even better, they get to keep their winnings and the current Hyperboom multiplier into the retrigger round which can lead to some juicy wins.

Are you starting to feel like Bon Bomb is going to be an evergreen theme for you?

If players connect with Bon Bomb Bonanza the same way they did with Bon Bomb Luxpots, I would say there is scope for more Bon Bomb games in the future. Plus we all have a sweet tooth in the studio here!

How do you choose your themes?

“One of the aspects I truly enjoy about game development is the ability to switch gears from one theme to another, keeping the excitement alive for both our team and players.”

Bryan Upton, founder and director of Lucksome.

We find inspiration for our slot games from various sources, as ideas can emerge from anywhere. Whenever someone on the team suggests an idea they believe would make a fantastic slot game, be it mechanical or thematic, we add it to our backlog. Periodically, we gather as a team to review our backlog, matching mechanics with themes that resonate with us. From there, our game designers take the chosen ideas and further develop them until we achieve a design that everyone is satisfied with.

What can we expect from Lucksome for the rest of 2023?

One of the positive feedbacks we have received about our games is the variety we offer. We plan to further diversify our portfolio with some incredible themes, mechanics and features. Although I cannot give too much away, rest assured we have something for everyone in this year’s roadmap. Our next big release will be 6 in the Chamber, which is super high volatility, Cyberpunk Western Bounty Hunter theme with up to 100,000x bet max win, a game to watch in 2023!