A Closer Look at Golden Rock Studios
The company may have little more than a dozen employees, but they are already taking the gaming industry by storm with some impressive designs. This should not come as a surprise, because Golden Rock were formed by two of the most experienced people in the business. Co-founder and company CEO James Curwen was one of the head honchos with major sports betting firm William Hill, while his fellow founder Will Mathieson has designed several big hit slots for other software providers over the past decade.
This experience and expertise has provided a solid foundation on which to build a successful team which has already designed some excellent games. The company has its headquarters on the UK overseas territory of Gibraltar, but its main games design studio is situated in London. Golden Rock also employ a small number of remote workers dotted around the European continent, including in Italy and Spain.
One crucial factor which has enabled the company to become so well-known despite their lack of a proven track record of several years of production is that Golden Rock have been snapped up on an exclusive distribution deal with industry giants Microgaming. The deal, signed in late 2019, means that the company’s slots are available to any online casino which carries Microgaming slots which, let’s face it, is almost all of them. This widespread, virtually worldwide availability means that the company is able to punch well above the weight you would expect from a company this size.
Golden Rock Studios Games
Golden Rock produce both table games and slots for the online casino market. At the time of writing, there are only around a dozen games in total in the company’s portfolio, but this is not such a small number bearing in mind the youthfulness of the company. Their recent rate of production and future plans suggests an output of around half a dozen games per year, so their range is expected to rise rapidly.
Traditional casino game formats included in the early Golden Rock release schedule include several varieties of Blackjack and Roulette, with more in the pipeline. The focus is on slots however, and the first title released under the company’s exclusive Microgaming deal was the impressive Volatile Slot. This ‘does what it says on the tin’ style title features a tropical volcano, and the game can certainly be explosive if your luck is in. There are two different game modes, two types of Wild symbol, with both Exploding and Volcanic Wilds to bring fiery fortune if the reels run in your favour.
There are free spins and up to a 64 x prize multiplier too. If the game’s Volcano explodes, you can win as much as 25,600 x your original stake if the gods of luck are truly on your side. That could be enough to afford a holiday on a real tropical island, although hopefully not too close to any real life active volcanos.
Further superb slots have followed this outstanding debut. Speaking of luck bringing deities, Star Gods is a Chinese Luck themed game which features a win both ways mechanism, Stacked and Sticky Wilds and some re-triggering Free Spins too. In fact, Golden Rock seem to have a preoccupation with supernatural spiritual beings, with Gods of Power featuring Classical, Norse and Eastern deities Aphrodite, Thor and Cai Shen to potentially help you to win some impressive prizes.
There is also Wild Predators, which unusually is set in the Sri Lankan jungle. This features five fearsome predators – a Tiger, Puma, Crocodile, Eagle and Shark. You won’t necessarily find all of these in a jungle of course, but don’t let the facts get in the way of an entertaining game. This one includes a special Free Spins Bonus Feature which offers the prospect of re-triggering free spins even on a winning line. Meanwhile for sports fans, All Sports features a mash up of Basketball, Football, Golf, Horse Racing and Tennis in a slot with Expanding Symbols, Free Spins which can be re-triggered and even a Hold facility to increase your chances of winning.
Golden Rock Studio’s exclusive licencing deal with Microgaming means that their games are widely available to casinos on the Nektan platform. And with plenty more new titles in the pipeline, look out for them on your chosen Nektan casino.