Kai Botha: “The crash genre is new, and there is infinite room for innovation”

Following the release of its entry into the crash genre with Deep Rush, we spoke to Kai Botha, Commercial Director at Kalamba Games about the provider's interpretation of a crash game, the wider potential of the genre and how the studio is driving innovation.

Q: This is Kalamba Games’ first dive into crash games, and you are already changing the paradigm - the setting for one. Why did you choose an ocean setting and do you see this as an out-of-the-box move compared to all the other popular crash titles already available?

Despite it being our very first crash title, Deep Rush, was a game-changer that literally and metaphorically flipped the genre on its head.

Traditional crash games typically show a character or icon rising to represent the player's increasing cash prize. However, Deep Rush's ocean setting allowed us to break with this convention and instead depict a diver descending to the bottom of the ocean. The deeper the diver goes, the higher the value of the player's prize. This maritime setting is also very popular with players, as evidenced by the success of fishing and shark-themed titles within the slot vertical. We wanted to bring this popular aesthetic to crash players for the first time and in turn, provide our operator partners with increased cross-selling opportunities.

Q: Can you tell us about Deep Rush a little more - how the idea for the game came to be, and how you executed it and turned it into a reality?

The crash genre is undeniably popular, offering players risk and reward factors alongside decision-making that blends mechanics from both the live casino and slot sectors. These innovative features drew us to begin to develop our first crash title, and it has proved a natural fit for our inventive style.

Our first challenge was to differentiate ourselves from the competition to appeal to both players and operators. This quickly led us to subvert the vertical by lowering our character's position rather than increasing it. From there, the further design saw us immediately think of mining for gold as an option and, of course, underwater exploration. The ocean setting and the diving theme ultimately was chosen and from there, our mathematicians, developers and artists got to work creating Deep Rush.

Q: When announcing the game you touted the crash game genre's strength in providing players with experiences based on their particular playstyles. Do you think the crash games can yet scale up in that regard?

We added numerous additional features to Deep Rush in order to expand the number of play styles on offer. For example, players can choose five different speeds at which to dive, which allows riskier players to reach the highest win potential quicker and more tactical players to take their time on the journey to the ocean floor.

The crash genre is still relatively new, and there is an infinite amount of room for innovation. We believe that there are many ways to expand it and offer even greater individualised playstyles. The inclusion of power-ups and when to trigger them or have multiple dives take place simultaneously could underpin these different gameplay styles. We are excited to see how the crash genre evolves in the future and hope to drive this change through repeated innovations within our own titles.

Q: Now that you have dipped a toe into crash games, do you think you will continue and add more titles? How many crash games by a single company is too many?

Deep Rush has been a huge success, and we are excited to build on its popularity in the future. We of course plan to develop another crash game, but we are aware of the risk of over-saturation. We believe that it is important for Kalamba and all studios to challenge themselves to provide enough innovation to justify the creation of a new game to avoid player fatigue.

Whether that is by adding new features and mechanics that make the game more engaging and unpredictable, or creating different themes and settings that appeal to a wider range of players; or even adding a lobby element. There are plenty of ways to innovate and improve on this game itself.

Potentially there is scope for partnering with popular brands and IPs to create games that have mass market appeal. Fundamentally by following these principles, Kalamba and by extension, all studios can create new crash games indefinitely that are both innovative and successful.

Q: What are your other plans for the year about building innovative game features?

Our next tentpole release is Cashpot Kegs Megaways, which combines Kalamba's popular K-Cash symbols with Megaways to give players a new way to enjoy this popular mechanic. We are also expanding our Hold and Win series, which players have naturally gravitated towards.

Each of our releases are bold in their aim to deliver real innovation to the market, and this ambition has underpinned our portfolio throughout recent years, so we are keen to continue this trend in the future.

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