VegasSlotsOnline News caught up with SpinPlay and AreaVegas CEO Anton Kuhlmann. [Image: Shutterstock.com]

Based in the gambling heart of the US, Las Vegas, AreaVegas is breaking the mould when it comes to slot design. The games studio has only been operating for a short amount of time, but it has now boasts a number of incredible games in its portfolio, from Area Blast Double Bass to Area Link Dragon.

As the studio prepares to release a string of new and exciting titles, VegasSlotsOnline News caught up with its CEO Anton Kuhlmann to find out a little more about the design process. He also serves as the CEO of SpinPlay Games, the sister company of AreaVegas.

Great to meet you! Could you tell us a bit about your role at AreaVegas and how you found yourself with the company?

Hello, I’m Anton, the CEO of SpinPlay Games and the co-founder of both SpinPlay and AreaVegas. I’m one of the original founders of the studio, and am deeply involved in all parts of the business including the game math, production, and product design.

Your team’s heart is in Las Vegas, Nevada. What benefits would you say this has for the company?

A lot of us grew up here in Las Vegas with slot machines in every gas station and grocery store, and it has a large impact on the games we make. We spend a lot of time at the casinos playing games ourselves. It’s hard to imagine making the games we do without having that experience all around us.

AreaVegas was only founded in 2022. What strategy did you take to ensure you made an impact on the sector immediately, producing games of real quality?

AreaVegas was built as a sister studio to SpinPlay Games, which let us jump in with a wealth of experience making games for the platform – and let us really focus on the games themselves.

games that we could build into series that players would love and recognize

We spent a lot of time on the first couple of releases to make sure that we launched the new brand with a lot of excitement and games that we could build into series that players would love and recognize.

Area Link Dragon is one of your new games released this year. Tell us a bit about it.

I’m very excited about the global release of Area Link Dragon in the second week of May. Dragon was designed to be the true sequel to Area Link Phoenix, which was the very first AreaVegas title. Dragon brings the same base gameplay and fiery lair intensity from Phoenix, but with an additional feature layer which brings the total feature combinations up to 15 from the 7 originally in Phoenix.

The Area Link Feature and the feature combinations sound like exciting aspects to this slot. How do these work?

In Area Link Dragon, there are four different Area Link features that can be triggered from any Base Game spin. Each of these features takes the traditional Link&Win mechanic and enhances it with multipliers, additional reels, instant screen pays and the new Blast symbol.

The feature enhancements that you receive are based on the symbols in the base game that trigger the Area Link feature. You can trigger any combination of the features, with a minimum of one feature and a maximum of all four features together!

Have you got any personal favorites from your existing games portfolio that our readers should try?

Definitely watch out for Area Link Dragon, and if you haven’t played our other Area Link games they are definitely worth a spin. Phoenix is still my personal favorite, but they each have their own charm and character.

Our next installment in the series, Bullet Train Bandits, releases in June 2024

Our Rush Express series is another great set of games that all players can enjoy. We recently released Diamond Rush Express, a sequel to the series original game Gold Rush Express. Our next installment in the series, Bullet Train Bandits, releases in June 2024.

What can we expect from AreaVegas in the rest of 2024?

2024 is going to be a standout year for AreaVegas. We launched our first games as a studio brand in 2023 and released five games for the entire year. In 2024, we are releasing a game every month, for 12 new releases total.

Next up, on July 9, we will be releasing Area Surge City of Gold, an adventure game paying up to 5000x the bet.

Players can expect to see a lot of sequels to our popular series, with several new feature additions already in production. We will also be releasing some new mechanics and series to test the market and ensure that we are on the leading edge of player entertainment for the years to come.