Eyecon slots used to be mainly confined to bingo sites such as MrQ but are now reaching a much wider audience.
- Who are Eyecon?
- Signature features of Eyecon slots
- Some well known Eyecon games
- Eyecon progressive jackpots
- The Future
Who are Eyecon?
Eyecon started as a computer games company in Australia in 1997 and started to develop online gambling products in 1999. The game studio – where all the programming and development is done – is still located in Brisbane. Eyecon also have an office in the Channel Islands (Guernsey) which oversees sales, marketing and business development.
In early 2017 it was announced that Eyecon would be bought by Playtech in a deal worth £50m.
This was an extremely canny move by Playtech. Eyecon’s best known slot Fluffy Favourites was (and still is) massively popular with bingo players and along with Eyecon’s other slots was available to play at Playtech’s main rival in the bingo world, bingo sites running on 888’s Dragonfish platform. Solution – don’t just buy in the game, buy the entire company!
It was arguably a good move for Eyecon as well, as with the might of Playtech behind them the games are being pushed out to a much wider audience. These days, more than 6 BILLION spins are done on Eyecon games every year and we expect this to continue into 2020 and beyond.
Signature features of Eyecon slots
Some signature features are present in almost all Eyecon slots, especially older ones.
- 25 paylines is standard
- They have animated scatter symbols and in some games animated wild symbols – such as the pink elephants in the Fluffy games and the gummy bears in Sugar Train.
- The usual bonus round consists of 15 free spins for 3 scatters, 20 free spins for 4 scatters or 25 free spins for 5 scatters. It can be retriggered up to 15 times and can result in some extremely large wins, especially in slots such as Fluffy Favourites and Temple of Ausar where all wins during free spins are tripled.
- Recent Eyecon releases have introduced new features such as the pick your own volatility bonus round.
Some well known Eyecon games
Fluffy, Fluffy Too, Fluffy Fairground, Fluffy In Space
The Fluffy Favourites games have been hugely popular with bingo players for years (the original game dates back to 2006) but it wasn’t until early 2018 that they started to be widely available at casino and slot sites too. There are four Fluffy games – the original, Fluffy Too, Fluffy Fairground and Fluffy In Space– and these come in regular and progressive jackpot versions. If the idea of a pink cuddly toy elephant dancing (or twerking, in Fluffy Too) is at all appealing to you, you’ll enjoy these games. The first three Fluffy games have two bonus rounds – a pick-me and the usual free spins but with a 3x multiplier – and Fluffy In Space has a new bonus feature.
The cuddly toy animals from the Fluffy games also make special guest appearances in other Eyecon games including Doubleup Ducks and Happy Birthday.
Shaman’s Dream & Shaman Spirit
Shaman’s Dream and its sequel Shaman Spirit are themed on native American mythology. Both have a 2x multiplier on wilds and a bonus round of 15 free spins only (for 3 or more scatters). The original game has a very slightly higher RTP (95.44% to 95.4%) and the sequel has more up to date graphics.
White Wizard & White Wizard Deluxe
White Wizard is an older Eyecon game with the usual free spins bonus round and an expanding wild in the form of the Wizard himself. The deluxe version has a 5 x 4 reels array instead of the original’s 5 x 3, and 100 paylines instead of 25.
Temple of Isis / Temple of Iris / Temple of Ausar / Temple of Iris 2
Temple of Iris used to be called Temple of Isis (which, for an Egyptian themed slot, is a more historically accurate name). It was originally released in 2003 and was Eyecon’s first slot game. The “Iris” version has up to date graphics. The sequel, Temple of Ausar, is very similar (the RTP is slightly worse) and now there’s a second sequel called Temple of Iris 2. All three games have a free spins bonus round of 15 spins with a 3x multiplier.
Sugar Train
Sugar Train has an extra bonus feature as well as the usual 15- 25 free spins and pick me bonus rounds. The gumball delivery (or Christmas cookie delivery, in the Xmas re-skin) is triggered when the red indicator is filled and awards up to five multiplier payouts (of up to x100 each) – this can happen after any non winning spin in the base game.
99 Time
99 Time was one of Summer 2017’s big hits. Anyone who spent their childhood in the UK will be well aware of what a “99” is – vanilla ice cream in a cone with a Cadbury’s Flake stuck in it. There are a few theories as to why it is called a 99 – no-one knows for sure which is correct, but there is one popular theory which certainly isn’t and that is that it originally cost 99p (99s were around long before the introduction of decimal currency).
The 99 itself is the highest scoring symbol in this 25 line slot and almost all the other symbols are delicious looking ice creams too. The game plays very like Fluffy, with a pick me bonus round and a 15 – 25 free spin bonus round with triple wins. triggered by different symbols.
Unicorn Bliss
Unicorn Bliss is almost sickening in its cuteness. It came out shortly before the UKGC decided to crack down on cartoon characters that might appeal to children and as those sorts of cartoon characters go, it’s got the lot – not just animated prancing unicorns but birds, flowers, insects and a smiling sun, moon and stars. It has the classic Eyecon bonus round of 15, 20 or 25 free spins.
Stampede
Stampede takes Eyecon in a new direction as it is not at all cutesy (instead featuring photo realistic depictions of big game animals) and more reminiscent of Raging Rhino than of a regular Eyecon slot. It is a 243 way and has a bonus round where the player can choose their variance – the 5 options range from 20 free spins with a 2x multiplier to a very risky 5 free spins with a 10x multiplier.
Beat the Bobbies / Beat the Bobbies at the Tower of London
Beat the Bobbies is a 2017 Eyecon release which is British to the core. The central character, a glamorous female burglar, is trying to steal the Crown Jewels and has to escape various London based cartoon characters including a guardsman and a British bulldog as well as the police. Like Stampede (which it predates) it is a 25 line slot with a pick your own volatility bonus round. The 2020 sequel, Beat the Bobbies at the Tower of London, also has the pick your own volatility bonus round but unusually for an Eyecon slot it is a 243 way.
Puggy Payout / Kitty Payout
Not to be confused with the older game Piggy Payout which is very similar to Fluffy, Puggy Payout and Kitty Payout are two different versions of the same game which came out in February 2018, one for dog lovers and one for cat lovers. They return to the classic Eyecon format of a cutesy 25 line slot with a bonus round consisting of 15, 20 or 25 free spins.
Sports Themed Slots
In another new departure for Eyecon, two slot games were released in the first half of 2018 that had clearly been designed to tie in with sports promotions – horse races in the case of Past The Post and football in the case of Striker Goes Wild.
Past the Post is a 243 way slot with a pick your own volatility bonus round, very similar to Stampede and Beat the Bobbies but with some additional racing based graphics. It featured heavily in promotions for the Cheltenham Festival and for the Grand National.
Striker Goes Wild has a new bonus feature instead of the usual free spins. Activated by spinning three of the Striker symbols, the ball is kicked around the pitch turning 7 – 10 symbols wild in one of 12 preset patterns. Striker Goes Wild was used in a number of World Cup promotions.
Heartburst
No prizes for guessing which other famous slot game with expanding wilds this was meant to make you think of! It’s more of a soundalike than a lookalike though – Heartburst is played on a 5×4 array with a massive 100 paylines and has rather high volatility. There’s also a progressive jackpot version.
Lucha Rumble
Lucha Rumble has quite a different looking theme to other Eyecon slots (Mexican wrestling) but apart from being a 1024 way slot it has very similar features. The instant prize for gold symbols on reels 1 and 5 is also seen in Temple of Iris 2 and the bonus round is the oh so familiar 15, 20 or 25 free spins.
Seasonal Specials
Happy Birthday is basically the same game as Temple of Iris, re-skinned with cakes, balloons, cuddly toys making a guest appearance from Fluffy Favourites and other party themed items. Itwas created so operators could hand out birthday free spins to players.
Very Merry Christmas is a classic 25 liner with a 2x multiplier on wilds and 2 bonus rounds. The Red present round is a match and win game and the Green present round is a pick-me where each pick awards a cash payout or 10 free spins.
Xmas Cash is a rather unappealing game with a 3×3 reels array and a worse RTP than the other festive slots. It has two bonus rounds – 8 free spins and a pick-me..
Sugar Train Xmas is a very nicely done reskin of Sugar Train.
Rebets Splendour
Rebets Splendour has a theme of luxury that echoes classics such as Mega Fortune and The Finer Reels Of Life, but the most interesting thing about this 25 line slot is the Rebet feature.
This appears in the base game only and allows a player to pay to re-spin individual reels. Each reel has a different re-spin cost (to keep the re-spin RTP constant at 97%) and not all may be available (on many spins none are). Up to 5 re-spins are allowed per spin (not per reel). The cost of a re-spin is often considerably more than the original spin cost – especially if the re-spin could potentially trigger the free spins bonus.
Eyecon progressive jackpots
Many Eyecon slots come in progressive jackpot versions. These are generally not wide area progressives, but local progressives exclusive to one site, network or operator. They usually have a maximum value at which they are guaranteed to drop if they haven’t done so previously, and typically this (as well as the seed value) is set by the host site. For the regular progressives the maximum is usually in the region of £25,000 and typically, several Eyecon games are connected to the same jackpot.
Eyecon also have Mega Jackpot progressive versions for a few of their games including the Fluffy games. This can be confusing as not only is the largest of the three jackpots in the ordinary progressive version also called the Mega jackpot, but many sites display the tiles for the Mega Jackpot versions of Fluffy games although they actually only have the regular progressive jackpot versions. The true Mega Jackpot versions of the game feature a progressive jackpot with a huge maximum of £500,000.
The Future
It’s fairly obvious from the titles that have been released over the last couple of years which direction Eyecon is moving in – they are clearly diversifying from their classic model of a 25 line slot featuring cute and cuddly characters and experimenting with more adult themes and different game mechanics including pay to re-spin and choose your own volatility.
With the introduction of these new and exciting features, plus the evergreen appeal of Eyecon classics like Sugar Train and Fluffy Favourites, Eyecon are bound to go from strength to strength and we expect to see many more Eyecon casinos in 2020 and further into the future.
