Ramona Petrina, Booming Games: “We never want to lose the excitement of developing an original idea and turning it into something players genuinely enjoy”
Ramona Petrina, chief of staff at Booming Games, discusses the studio’s evolution, its approach to game development and the creative vision driving its future.
Exclusive interview.- Booming Games has evolved from an independent studio founded more than 12 years ago into a global gaming business with more than 200 employees, while maintaining the creative spirit that shaped its early years. In the following interview with Focus Gaming News, Ramona Petrina, chief of staff at Booming Games, looks back at the company’s origins and discusses how creativity, player data, market trends and commercial insight shape its games today.
Can you tell us about the origins of Booming Games and the vision that drove the company from the beginning?
It all started from a simple idea: the gaming sector needed to raise the bar on the entertainment it provides its players. From this idea, Booming Games was born. Independent from day one, and built from the ground up, it has become a global business, with a roster of innovative games that are redefining what entertainment looks like in the sector.
Our mission is to create high-quality games that players love. Fuelled by a passion and background in storytelling and entertainment, we are driving innovation in the sector and pushing boundaries.
Founded over 12 years ago, a fiercely independent spirit and dedication to continuous improvement has created a global footprint which serves customers across the world. We are committed to providing customers not just with great games but with a white-glove service that ensures the products they get are bespoke and customised to the needs of their business and their customers.
“Our mission is to create high-quality games that players love”
Ramona Petrina, chief of staff at Booming Games.
What were some of Booming Games’ first titles, and which early milestones helped shape the studio’s identity?
Some of our earliest games continue to be successful today, which is something we are particularly proud of. Titles such as Booming Seven Deluxe and Burning Classics have demonstrated remarkable longevity.
Burning Classics, for example, continues to return to the top ten with some of our partners, despite having been released many years ago. These are relatively traditional slot games, but they combine strong visuals with engaging and well-balanced mathematics. Their continued performance shows that a clear concept and solid execution can remain relevant for a very long time.
For us, these games represent important early milestones because they helped establish the foundations of what Booming Games stands for: accessible entertainment, recognisable quality and gameplay that keeps players coming back.
How has the development process evolved?
Our game development process is constantly evolving. We consider it a living framework rather than something that is ever completely finished.
The Game Studio, Product, Engineering and the wider group of stakeholders regularly review how we work together and where the process can be improved. The objective is always to find the right balance between efficiency, creative freedom and product quality.
As the company has grown, our processes have naturally become more structured. At the same time, it remains extremely important that the process supports creativity rather than restricts it. A strong process should allow good ideas to move forward more effectively and give every discipline the opportunity to contribute at the right stage of development.
Where do game ideas come from, and how are concepts selected?
We have a number of highly creative people across the organisation who regularly bring forward new concepts, mechanics, themes and stories.
Ideas can come from almost anywhere. They may be inspired by market developments, player behaviour, new mechanics, trends from land-based casinos, popular culture or simply an interesting creative idea that someone believes could become a great game.
From there, we develop the concept through collaborative brainstorming sessions. We look not only at the visual theme, but also at the central gameplay idea, the mathematics, the features and the story surrounding the game.
The strongest concepts are those where all of these elements support one another. We continue refining an idea until we believe it has a clear identity, a compelling player proposition and a genuine reason to exist in the market.
What are the biggest challenges involved in developing a successful game?
Every game receives a significant amount of attention, passion and creative energy from the team. We operate in the entertainment industry, so our fundamental responsibility is to entertain the player.
The challenge is that a successful game is never defined by one element alone. The storytelling, visual direction, mathematics, features, sound design and overall gameplay experience all need to work together. There needs to be a coherent red thread running through the entire product.
No one has a crystal ball that can guarantee the next major success. Even with extensive experience and data, it is impossible to predict player reactions with absolute certainty.
That means we approach every new project with ambition and with the belief that it could become our next top-performing game. Each time, we start again with the same level of focus and commitment, while applying everything we have learnt from previous releases.
How does the team balance creativity, player behaviour, market trends and commercial considerations?
All four elements are extremely important, and we try to give them equal consideration throughout the development process.
Creativity is essential because every game needs an identity and something that makes it distinctive. At the same time, we analyse player behaviour very closely. We can see how players interact with our games, which features they use and where they are most engaged. These insights help us continuously improve both new concepts and existing products.
Market trends are equally important. We observe what other studios are doing, what is emerging in land-based gaming and what is happening in entertainment more broadly. The objective is not simply to follow trends, but to understand what is resonating with audiences and determine how we can interpret it in our own way.
Commercial input is also vital because our commercial teams are close to the operators. They receive direct customer feedback, understand competitive activity and see how games are received when they are presented or pitched.
The best results are achieved when creative ambition, player data, market awareness and commercial feedback are brought together rather than treated as competing priorities.
How has the studio evolved from its early days to today?
Booming Games has evolved enormously. Today, we are an organisation of more than 200 people, with much larger teams, more defined responsibilities and significantly more structured development processes.
Naturally, the way we work today is very different from the early days of the company. We have more data, greater technical capabilities and a much broader range of expertise across the organisation.
However, one thing we are determined to preserve is the creativity and entrepreneurial thinking that helped build the studio in the first place. Regardless of how large the company becomes, we are still creating entertainment products. We never want to lose the excitement of developing an original idea and turning it into something players genuinely enjoy.
What continues to inspire the team, and what does the future of game development look like for Booming Games?
A major source of inspiration is the team itself. We have people from many different creative, technical and commercial backgrounds, and they continuously challenge and inspire one another.
We are also inspired by the wider entertainment landscape, changing player expectations, emerging technologies and the new opportunities developing across the gaming industry.
Looking ahead, we have a very exciting pipeline. We are exploring new innovations, new product verticals and new ways for players to interact with our content. There are a number of projects that we cannot discuss publicly just yet, but our ambition is to continue expanding what a Booming Games product can be.
The future of game development will be more diverse, more data-informed and increasingly personalised, but creativity and entertainment will remain at its core. For Booming Games, the focus will continue to be on combining innovation with strong gameplay fundamentals and creating experiences that feel fresh, engaging and recognisably ours.
“The future of game development will be more diverse, more data-informed and increasingly personalised, but creativity and entertainment will remain at its core”
Ramona Petrina, chief of staff at Booming Games.
