Per Lindheimer, Head of Product at Nolimit City sat down with Online-Slot.co.uk just before the festive break. Per has been at NLC since November 2015 and was previously Product Owner for Slot Games at NetEnt. He answers our questions on how he’s seen the company progress since 2014, what his favourite slots of 2022 were and what’s in stock for 2023. Enjoy!
It’s been a long ride. I was one of the first ones when I joined in 2015. The first handful of dudes had completed the platform and the first concept game. 2015 and the following couple of years were all about building up the game studio and a proper games portfolio.
We tried loads of different games and even though some of them were really volatile at the time, it wasn’t until we released the first xMechanic (xNudge) with the game Hot Nudge that we found our own way forward. After Hot Nudge was done, we instantly started with Tombstone, which was a much more volatile version of Hot Nudge, with a classic western theme.
Tombstone put us on the map, but the edgy Punk Rocker really made us breakthrough on a bigger scale, and then we released a bunch of popular titles like the continuation of Tombstone which got the name Deadwood. It’s been far from an easy ride, that’s for sure, but it’s been a fun journey! And the journey continues…
Two favourites: Serial and Tombstone RIP. Felt like they really fit our brand: naughty, loud, and explosive. The 300.000 x max win with the new xBet functionality in Tombstone RIP made this title really stand out in the industry, and that’s always fun! Serial because the theme and music are right up my own personal alley.
Only picking my Nolimit favourites here, but in general 2022 felt a little less exciting than 2021 from all suppliers.
We’ve got two that stand out, for different reasons. First off: Mental. It’s just mental, isn’t it? Superb game name, very nice execution if I may say it myself, both from a graphics point of view, but also with its complex math. It stands out in so many ways.
The completely different vibe and colour scale just go against every rule in the book about how you should design a slot. There’s no humour whatsoever, just eerie and dark, which makes it fun. Super complex mechanics, which are on speed and super quick. Released during 2021 along with a bunch of other really fun and popular games, but it just stands out within this industry I guess.
The second one is Fire in the Hole, which is much more vanilla in comparison. Super popular and real grinder-type of game, and it’s just entertainment value! The main game is so much fun, and even with this grumpy old dwarf it still just entertains you every time you play it. There’s so much happening and it’s quick and fun to play it. Also, a game name that I just love.
No, but the slot industry is for 18+ for a reason, so why can’t the themes also be more towards the more mature and controversial side? Themes shouldn’t only be gold and four-leaf clovers, or fruits for that matter. I look at it more from the movie industry point of view, it can’t all just be feel good-movies: there’s a need for diversity.
For us, however, it’s much more fun to work on a title that isn’t low-key and just dandy. We’ll be a bit more diverse during 2023, but you’ll see both dark themes and some more humorous themes from our side.
We see a lot of good games which haven’t got controversial themes: there are loads of nice productions without going “dark side”. But we do however also see a lot of vanilla-themed slots which are pretty much just no fun at all. If it’s a well-produced slot, with a fun theme that just works, then it’s just great!
Oooh, who knows? We haven’t decided yet: so not anytime soon. Isn’t 300,000 x bet enough? Haven’t seen many even taking a stab at 150,000 x bet.
Yes, some new fun stuff we haven’t done previously, or for anyone else either. If it’s good – let’s hope so. It’s hard to come up with mechanics that are worthy of becoming a xMechanic…
Ha-ha, who knows?! Haven’t got any plans to use their IPs, we always try to build our own IPs. It doesn’t sound super exciting to do a Piggy Riches xNudge, in that case, we’ll leave it to NetEnt to use our xMechanics. That would make more sense. Not sure if they want to, but they can just gimme a call!
I’ve said this before, but Tombstone is hard to erase as my favourite one. It’s the start of everything in a way, and that runs deep within my soul. Still a super fun game as well! I’ve got a sweet spot for Dragon Tribe as well, I like that base game along with the journey in the free spins. It has two FS versions, but no SFS which is different when you look at our games these days.
