Wiktoria Hanak: "Plenty of studios lean into nostalgia by just dusting off old visuals and calling it a day"

Wiktoria Hanak, Head of Account Management at BF Games, talks about the release of Silver Coins, the game's evolution as a dice title, and the hard work that has gone into crafting strong titles that help evolve established mechanics in iGaming to offer something new and worthwhile.

Q: BF Games has recently introduced a brand-new game, Silver Coins, expanding the franchise. Could you start by introducing the title to our readers?

Silver Coins is exactly what it looks like at first glance, a classic fruit slot, 3x3 grid, 5 paylines, nothing scary about it. But don't let the simple look fool you, there's a lot going on under the hood once you actually sit down and play it for a bit.

We took mechanics that already exist in the iGaming world and gave them our own twist. There's a Magnet symbol that grabs value from Coin and Reward symbols around it, a 4-level jackpot tied to those same symbols, and a Magnet Bonus feature we already used in Magnetic Coins, basically 3 respins that keep refreshing every time a new bonus symbol shows up, stacking value until the round finally wraps up and pays out.

Every bonus symbol players land in the base game also feeds a thing called Pile of Coins, which nudges them closer to triggering that Magnet Bonus. And if someone is feeling impatient, there's an Extra Chance button, bump stake by 40% and double their odds of hitting Pile of Coins faster.

Q: You've built the game around the success of the franchise's predecessor, Magnetic Coins, and expanded on it further. How did you go about this, and did you worry about the new title cannibalizing Magnetic Coins' success?

Honestly, we didn't lose much sleep over cannibalization here, because Silver Coins and Magnetic Coins are based on a formula we already know works. If a player likes this style of slot, it genuinely doesn't matter which of the two they end up playing, especially for operators, both titles generate revenue either way. When a mechanic performs well, it makes sense to build on it rather than shelve it after one release, that's just good portfolio management, not a risk.

Operators rotate titles in and out of their lobbies constantly anyway, so having two strong options built on the same proven foundation just gives them more to work with, not less. If anything, players who liked Magnetic Coins get an easy way into Silver Coins because the DNA feels familiar, and that's a win, not overlap we need to worry about.

Q: You've relied on this particular franchise to drive business success, while also leaning into, for lack of a better word, simpler, more nostalgic layouts and an overall retro feel. Did it feel risky to lean into that when you first started?

Not at all, Silver Coins is just one of many proposals from BF Games this season. We diversify our portfolio based on current trends, and on player behavior and habits we see through our own analytics and conversations with operators. Betting everything on one card would be risky and simply not sound business practice. Even though we operate in the gambling industry, the same rule that applies to responsible gameplay applies to how we run the business too, you don't put all your chips on one number.

Alongside Silver Coins, a lot more titles have come out recently that show just how diverse slots can be. Raiders of the East is feature rich, built around adventure, long sessions, layered mechanics and a really striking audiovisual side. Oktobeer Gold is our latest seasonal release, built on the familiar German Oktoberfest theme, with a Bonus Wheel feature that rewards a random multiplier as one of its standout mechanics. On top of that, we keep expanding our Cash Mesh Link library, which ties together a shared jackpot pool across several games in the series, and the newest addition there is our flagship title, Stunning Crown.

Q: What do you think sets your games apart from competitors also chasing that same nostalgic feeling?

Plenty of studios lean into nostalgia by just dusting off old visuals and calling it a day. What we focus on instead is craftsmanship, getting the pacing, sound and feel of every spin exactly right, because that's what actually separates a satisfying classic style slot from a flat one. Players notice within seconds whether a game feels responsive, no amount of retro styling covers for that.

We also treat these titles as part of a connected family rather than one-off releases. Silver Coins builds directly on what worked in Magnetic Coins, so players who enjoyed one already recognize the pattern in the next, and that continuity is something a lot of competitors skip when they treat each nostalgic release as its own isolated experiment.

Q: You're also releasing Silver Coins Dice, reinventing the familiar experience as a dice game. Are you optimistic about this title as well?

Dice games have become an incredibly popular format in a lot of markets. They started out as a response to regulation, Belgium being one of the early drivers, and they've since become a permanent fixture in European casinos. Most developers today release their titles in two versions, the standard one and a Dice variant, and that approach clearly works, because a segment of players genuinely prefers the added clarity of dice mechanics, cleaner rules and a straightforward symbol hierarchy.

It's the same story for us. If there's demand for a particular format, we go after it, especially since converting a base game into a Dice version isn't rocket science, it takes relatively little extra investment to target markets where regulation requires it and players who simply prefer that style. That's exactly why we're confident about Silver Coins Dice, especially since it won't even be competing with the original for the same audience.

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