Howling at the moon

Founded in March 2021, RAW iGaming is a relatively new games designer priding itself on its easy-to-understand and boundary-pushing slot releases. It launched its first titles at the beginning of the year and has now widened its portfolio even further by completing its acquisition of Leander Games.

five reels and 1,024 ways to win

Leander has just launched its latest release Moonlight Wolves, a wolf-themed slot with five reels and 1,024 ways to win. It essentially constitutes the final release for Leander as a separate brand, and it’s a game that has impressed everyone in the VegasSlotsOnline News office and rightfully earned its place in Slots of the Week.

Off the back of that September 1 release, VSO News caught up with two members of the RAW iGaming/Leander team. Leander head mathematician Nicolas Pavelek revealed the key to creating Moonlight Wolves, while director of account management for RAW Salvador Lima Ruiz explained what the freshly-combined company has lined up next.

Firstly, can you tell us a bit about Moonlight Wolves and what players can expect from the new game?

Nicolas Pavelek: The game is a 5×3 multiway slot game. It has two main features with good frequency to assure that there is a lot of activity in the main game for entertainment and some middle-range winnings. In addition, it has a Free Spins Bonus that is worth the wait. Not only does it pay some good winnings on average, but it also offers some massive winnings up to 16,000x your stake. In a few words, it’s a game with lots of activity and fun that can also lead you to some big winnings.???

What makes it different to other titles out there?  

NP: The game has a theme that has been used before but is not over-used. It also has a paying mechanism that is well known to seasoned players and the feature mechanics are familiar but with some exciting tweaks that make them unique and stand out.

art, mechanics, math profile, and theme work together

This game is all about connecting the theme and animations with the mechanics. It is a cohesive game in the way that art, mechanics, math profile, and theme work together to enhance them.

You’ve gone for five reels with this particular slot. What’s the reason behind this?  

NP: First, it is a multiway game and that means that each symbol can pay a lot when stacked. We wanted to make sure that the features were worth the efforts of the art team, so we needed a lot of activity in them. This means that high-paying symbols will be prominent there. The animals being hunted by the wolves and the wild wolves provide more ways or longer combinations, so we felt that a good balance was to have five reels.

How did you first come up with the idea for the theme?

NP: We decided to focus on the wolf theme since it’s one that we didn’t have in our portfolio and believed that it has potential. We worked from that starting point and we researched the market to see what we could do better.

we focused on having mechanics that really work with the theme

We felt that most wolf-themed games out there were just including the wolves in the artwork of the game, so we focused on having mechanics that really work with the theme.  

What would you say is the key to making interesting slots like Moonlight Wolves?

Salvador Lima Ruiz: The key is to build a slot where players can feel there’s winning potential but at the same time, bearing in mind the amount of games that get released on a daily basis across all casinos, these winnings need to be shown frequently – otherwise players won’t be patient enough. Hopefully, the help of sites like VegasSlotsOnline will also help to give our games the right exposure and visibility to casino players.

Do you have plans for any more slot releases this year?

SLR: Now RAW iGaming has acquired Leander Games, it’s all about the really exciting new mechanics and concepts that RAW is bringing to the market, such as Super Slice. With this, players can play high volatile games in a new gaming experience, taking them away from reels and transferring them to a wheel that’s easy to follow and with the same modifiers they can find in a classic slot.

But that’s not all, as there’s even more to come, such as Super Tracks games where we will keep on innovating. With those games, players will only have to focus on the symbols… but I won’t reveal much. This certainly is not the only thing RAW has in the pipeline, there will be more exciting news coming up!