Casino Games That Remember The Last Session: How Persistent Features Are Changing The One-Spin-At-A-Time Model

It's somewhere between closing and opening a tab that the product remembers. Netflix knows where you left off in that documentary you fell asleep to. YouTube remembers where you left off in that tutorial. That puzzle game you played on the train remembers the grid you left half-finished. Remembering where users left off has become standard. That's why it feels odd when that's not the case.

Building on the observations of the psychologist Bluma Zeigarnik in 1927, it's been noted that, as part of his job, a waiter was able to remember details of customer orders that had not been settled while quickly forgetting details of settled orders. User Experience (or UX) designers have widely applied this notion to design "Continue Watching" features and similar options. Traditional casino games work on completely the opposite principle. A player's game session is completely independent of all others. Each new game starts from an unmarked position.

Persistent-design ideas can be found in online casino platforms throughout Europe. Recently, operators in the industry have moved away from the volume strategy and focused on establishing a deep and broad casino platform. As such, other industry competitors have begun to consider what is offered by rival platforms in the industry and assess if these offerings fill existing gaps in the market. From an industry perspective, various markets in Europe, such as Romania, have a developed and continually growing online casino market, and as such, present a competitive environment from an industry perspective. If the reader wishes to familiarize themselves with the types of casino games on offer throughout the industry, they can find a representative sample at the following link: https://don.ro/ro/.

The Unfinished-Tab Feeling

Progress bars that show completion of a task at 68% are prime examples of the ubiquitous use of ‘pull" effects. Through omnichannel design, the ‘pull" effect is further propagated to allow a customer to continue an activity on one device where they previously left off on a different device. Undeniably, a product that integrates an ‘omnichannel" pull effect feels more coherent to a user than a product that feels disjointed on multiple devices. Ultimately, an unfinished task gives a compelling reason to return, and a completed task doesn't offer the same incentive.

One Spin, Full Stop

Each game of a traditional slot machine has a distinct beginning and end. A game ends when the reels stop spinning, and the machine resets to the start position. The state of the game, the player's momentum and the configuration of the reels are all reset to the initial state at the end of each round.

Games in a land-based casino must be playable by all customers at any given time. There can't be any advantage or disadvantage carried over from the previous customer. Each game must be fair. Traditionally, to achieve this, every game must be reset before a new customer plays, and each game must be played in complete isolation.

The rhythm of this design creates an engaging yet disjointed player experience. Player engagement is broken up into small episodes. Unlike other digital products, casino games didn't create a sense of continuity for the player. This changed with the introduction of new technologies.

The State That Survives the Session

With innovations in the design of slot machines, there has been a focus on integrating aspects of game play across sessions, like other, more traditional video games. There has also been a move toward preserving elements of game play beyond simple features and bonus rounds.

IGT's Magic is a video slot which introduces bubbles that rise on the reels. These bubbles persist between players. As such, players leave a "work in progress" state for the next player.

Another example is Cash Falls from Light & Wonder. Once a bonus symbol lands, a counter associated with that reel resets to 3. The bonus symbol remains on that reel for the next 3 spins. This persists state between players similarly to Magic. Should a player leave a stateful machine, the next player gets to start with the work already partially done for them.

Online games have built on these concepts by coupling persistence to an account rather than to hardware. Playson's 3 Pots series dedicates a meter to each player and persists the values between game sessions and across devices. A player can expect to find the same meter in a game played a week later. The game's own product team has characterized this design as a player's "unfinished journey." This language is typical of a UX director at a major streaming service. The player can switch between computers, phones, and other devices and expect to find the same meter and progress.

The distinction here is that persistence is maintained between game sessions rather than during a game session.

Where the Wider Casino World Has Landed

In the European casino market, players can find a mix of both traditional and persistence-based designs. Good design and development standards allow players to swiftly move between game sessions and game options.

What Makes Continuity Different?

A game that keeps state across sessions doesn't reset between rounds. When a player interacts with that game, they are not starting from the beginning. There is something that is building, or accumulating, in the game, and the player is returning to that. This kind of structure alters the experience of returning to a game.

A conventional slot machine starts each game with a clean state. The reels reset, and the game state is set to the beginning. This kind of structure presents a complete experience. A game that keeps state presents an experience that is midway through. Each player defines, to some extent, what shape the experience will be. This shape changes based on the player's actions.

This design philosophy is prevalent in some online titles. Players can collect a variety of game items over multiple sessions. These games often present bonus tiers to let the players know how close they are to completing a goal.

Some digital products, especially digital streaming products and products related to on-demand services, engage users with a similar structure. These products let users shape their own experience, and give users a different experience each time they return to the product. People often engage more with an experience that is midway through, or shapes itself according to the user, than with a completed experience. Designers of digital casino products sometimes use these same structures, and other designers of digital products sometimes use these same structures. These designers came to similar solutions to engage users without working with one another.

The Design Logic Behind the Memory

We know Zeigarnik observed cognitive load, with open accounts persisting, and closed accounts dissolving. UX designers took this idea, and incorporated it into the structure of their products. Open accounts are represented in many ways including a progress bar, save state, or a marker of some kind. Designers use these techniques to appeal to users" desire to close an open account.

Let's see what happens if we use this idea with a design idea commonly found in slot machines. A slot machine that contains a meter, or other means of representing progress, that is left in that state, creates a design pull. Players, upon returning, can expect the design to be in the state they left it. Designs that allow for free games to be carried over to another player work in the same manner. If a player finds the counter close to its threshold, that player can expect the game to be in a state that is different from a game played with a fresh reset.

For the player, the differences are qualitative. A new game means starting from scratch, and there is no history to go back to. A state can be configured to persist, and it may represent a number of things to a player, e.g. where the player is, how far the player progressed in collecting in-game resources. It is imperative that differences in starting conditions represent meaningfully different things for the player to engage with.

A Round That Knows Your Name

The one-spin-at-a-time model is immediate and self-contained. Persistence means the game captures your progress and holds on to it for you. This creates the expectation that the game is saving something on your behalf.

A state is represented by a collection of symbols, and is represented graphically, almost like a stop on a journey.

The casino game that remembers where the player left off is like a streaming app, puzzle game or to-do app. Those apps help a player resume where they left off. The app or game remembers a player's progress and aids the player in continuing from where they left off.