The rise of ELA Games: how a small studio is changing igaming content

In 2022, a group of gaming enthusiasts banded together to create the small studio now known as ELA Games. Tired of the monotony of slot gaming, the firm promised to create unique and exciting games with the philosophy of ‘for players, by players’. Over the years, this resulted in an impressive catalogue of over 30 games and counting.

ELA Games’ year of expansion

Fast-forward to 2024, and ELA Games has doubled in size over 12 months. The studio hired some of the best talent in the industry to strengthen its personnel, adding more designers, developers and mathematicians to fulfill its new ambition of producing two games per month. As a result, the ELA Games portfolio has flourished with new additions like Joker Cashpot and Bandidos Bang!, two thrilling games that challenge the norm of slot gaming.

The recent addition of David Fall as business development manager supports the studio’s ‘for players, by players’ philosophy. As a slot streamer himself, Fall has a unique perspective that allows him to thrive in his role and help ELA Games produce games that resonate with what players really want. His experience interacting with gamers first-hand and communicating with developers from a streaming perspective allows him to bolster the studio from both the development and business sides.

A new focus on streaming

Although ELA Games has partnered with streamers in the past with great success, Fall encouraged the studio to pursue this marketing strategy further. As a result, ELA Games partnered with multiple macro- and micro-streamers. These streamers played numerous titles, including Cash of Gods and Lucky Dwarfs, which saw a 2x increase in traffic to the games. Fall now hopes to capitalise on this momentum by partnering with more streamers in diverse markets to bring more exposure to ELA Games’ portfolio of high-quality games.

Fall says: “As a streamer myself, I understand how important it is to collaborate with influencers. Partnering with slot streamers has proven beneficial to ELA Games in the past and I plan to use my expertise and connections in the industry to develop our marketing strategies related to streaming and video content.”

This foray into streaming encouraged the team to explore more video content. ELAborated Games is a short-form video series that highlights everything behind the studio’s scenes, communicating important news to partners. ELA Games plans to expand this format, eventually adding more exciting content.

An increase in industry recognition

ELA Games’ efforts have been paying off. The team has continued to publish innovative titles with exciting mechanics and entertaining gameplay, and attend industry conferences to boost exposure. This year has proven to be significant for the studio as it continued to accumulate recognition having been nominated for several industry awards.

ELA Games puts significant effort into its stands and presentations when attending industry events. At iGB Live! Amsterdam, it set up an immersive space for attendees to talk with both Fall and Oleksii Shulhin, ELA Games’ product studio manager. Those who visited demo-ed Bandidos Bang! and Joker Cashpot, two of ELA Games’ standout titles, and got a sneak peek at upcoming games. The studio has also prepared an elaborate stand at the SBC Summit Lisbon, where attendees can meet the team and experience new games for the first time. The team will be at stand B350 from 24-26 September.

New games galore

Although ambitious, ELA Games’ goal of producing two games per month in its second year of operation keeps the studio in the spotlight with fresh releases. August and September were a test for the studio as the team began acting on their goals.

Madshow Circus and Devil’s Treasure, two immersive games with compelling themes, were released in August.

• Madshow Circus is a 5×4 slot with 10 paylines that promises non-stop excitement with expanding wilds thanks to the ‘wild ride’ feature. The ‘knife klash’ feature is a unique take on bonuses, as it transports the player to an instance where they receive five attempts to win multipliers up to x1,000.
• Devil’s Treasure includes the groundbreaking PopWins™ mechanic from AvatarUX. This mechanic expands reel height on every winning symbol, boosting the chances to win even more. The ‘Hell wilds’ and 118,098 ways to win with the opportunity to hit a x5,000 multiplier make this an exciting prospect for all players.

The studio promises more exciting titles in September with AquaMafia and Farm Hunt. These two slots are packed with features to keep players glued to their screens with excitement.

• AquaMafia is an underwater adventure with ‘sticky re-spin’ and tantalising free spins features. With every win, the winning symbols lock onto the reels as re-spins trigger, allowing players to chain together massive payouts. The free spins feature offers up to 15 spins with the chance for a x17 multiplier.
• Farm Hunt is packed with features and surprises including ‘mystery symbols’, ‘gamble wheel, free spins and ‘sneaky wilds’. Sneaky wilds can appear randomly on the first and fifth reels, boosting the chances of winning in the base game. Once the player lands three or more scatter symbols, enter the gamble wheel to see how many free spins you’ll receive. In the free spins instance, Mystery symbols like ‘expanding wilds’ and ‘multiplier wilds’ boost your payout.

What’s next for ELA Games?

The studio will attend multiple industry conferences such as the SiGMA East Europe Summit, the SBC Summit in Lisbon and the SiGMA Europe Summit in Malta before 2024 is out. It will continue to showcase its games to attendees and increase exposure to its portfolio. ELA Games will also continue to develop its video content and collaborate with streamers to boost its digital presence and become a mainstay in the igaming industry.

Find out more about ELA Games and play the studio’s latest games here: www.elagames.com

David Fall is business development manager at ELA Games. With over five years’ experience in igaming account management, business development and sales, Fall has nurtured his people skills and developed a hands-on understanding of the pain points and needs of brands in the igaming world.

He built his brand as a slot streamer aka ‘David Plays Slots’, amassing thousands of followers on all social media platforms and creating a tight-knit community, giving him a personal understanding of casino and affiliate operations, and marketing.