A Guide to Big Time Gaming – The Creators of Megaways

Who is Big Time Gaming?

Big Time Gaming (BTG) is a company that develops online casino games and was founded in 2011, in Sydney, Australia. As a fairly young company, it does not boast a huge catalogue of games compared to some of the industry giants who have been operating for 20 years or more, but BTG shot into the spotlight when they created the Megaways slot mechanic that had a huge impact in the world of online casino games.

BTG was founded by Nik Robinson and Huw McIntosh. McIntosh provided the company with technical leadership, overseeing the software development and how they could assemble the games, whilst Nik Robinson had the business acumen to get BTG running. They were later joined by Ian Schmidt from Rockstar Games, the company behind video games such as Grand Theft Auto.

BTG had modest beginnings, entering the market as a start-up company that had to collaborate with bigger providers such as GTS, OpenBet and MGS. This step was necessary for BTG to get into the market, as it did not have enough resources to make its own games and find casinos that would offer them without the support of a big company that would ensure the safety and quality of the games. The games provided to casino operators need to be fully licensed and checked for stability which is why it is common practice to have such collaborations.

BTG Megaways Slots

It was in 2016 when BTG released their first Megaways slot, the Dragon Born Megaways. The mediaeval fantasy themed slot created tidal waves in the online casino game market when it came out. The gameplay was completely unique and slot fans had not seen anything like it before.

Megaways is a mechanic in which the number of symbols on each reel changes randomly after each spin. These range from between 2 and 7 symbols, with the dynamic changing with each spin changing the number of ways to land winning combinations. While the concept sounds simple enough, this new innovation became an instant hit with the slot playing community. These volatile slots caught the attention of the major companies as well such as NetEnt and Microgaming, who instantly wanted a piece of the action and offered to help provide BTG's Megaways games.

A key feature in the Megaways slot are the cascading reels, which is when symbols in a winning combination are removed from the reels to allow more symbols to drop in. If another winning combination is formed, then those symbols are removed and the reels cascade again. The reels will keep cascading until there are no more winning combinations, effectively allowing players to accumulate huge payouts should they keep landing winning combinations after each cascade.

The majority of Megaways slots in BTG's game collection can offer far more ways to win than a lot of traditional slots. With the changing number of symbols on each reel, some games can offer up to 117,649 different ways to win, with some Megaways formats offering up to 16 million different ways to win.

The way these work is that the number of paylines change from spin to spin. In traditional slots paylines are fixed and in some games you can choose how many you want to bet on per spin, varying the number of paylines but also the maximum that can be won from landing a full payline. In most Megaways slots there are 6 reels and each one has a varying number of rows that is not fixed between spins, changing the number of paylines that can be won on every spin.

To date, BTG has developed 20 Megaways titles with some of the games that became instant successes. These include Pirate Pays Megaways, Kingmaker Megaways, Who Want To Be A Millionaire Megaways, Gold Megaways, Spicy Meatballs Megaways, Beef Lightning Megaways, Bonanza Megaways, King of Cats Megaways, Wheel of Fortune Megaways, Survivor Megaways, Monopoly Megaways, Royal Mint Megaways, Holy Diver Megaways, Extra Chilli Megaways, White Rabbit Megaways, Starquest Megaways and Dragon Born Megaways and more.

BTG Megaclusters Slots

Megaclusters are similar in structure to Megaways, with 4x4 or 5x5 grids in which some positions may be blank, some may contain a large symbol and some may contain smaller 2x2 clusters of symbols. Winning combinations are formed when 5 or more matching symbols of any size form a cluster, allowing up to 256 Megaclusters if the symbols split into smaller parts. These games also include special features such as the cascading reels, unlimited win multipliers, free spins and gold wilds. There are currently three games developed by BTG in this category, the Diamond Fruits, Cyberslot and Star Clusters.

BTG Megaquads Slots

Megaquads is the third Mega game in the BTG series. It allows players to play on four different slots at one time. The Megaquads can merge horizontally in the base game and can merge horizontally and vertically in the free spins round, creating over 16 million different ways to win. So far there is only Slot Vegas in the Megaquad category, but it is a chirpy game that is quite exciting to play. This game may be more difficult to pick up for players who have not played many slots as there are a lot of places that players need to pay attention to, but it is still fun in itself to play.

BTG Megapays Jackpot Slots

The Megapays jackpot slots have practically the same rules as the Megaways slots, only they also have a progressive jackpot. This means that there is an additional bonus game in the original Megaways game where players can try and win one of four jackpots. There is a mini, minor, major and mega jackpot that are all increasing after every spin in the base game. This is because a portion of the bet is taken out and put into the jackpot, increasing its value. While playing with higher bets may increase the likelihood of getting a jackpot, it is important to remember that the jackpot is a collected fixed amount. It does not matter if you win the jackpot on a smaller original bet or a larger one, it will not be multiplied. That being said, the jackpot seed values range from €100 to €300,000 which is already a hefty amount for the pot to start at. BTG has developed 2 Megapays jackpot slots so far, the Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Megapays and the Bonanza Megapays, both of which are remakes of the original Megaways games that were so successful.

Conclusion

The Mega series of slots may be difficult for newcomers to pick up, they are games that require some background knowledge of slots or at least a bit of theory so that gamers know what they are looking at. That being said, once the structure of the game is clear, then it can be far more enthralling than classic slots, as there are far more aspects in the game that players can look out for. The effort that BTG put into developing their Megaway slots is praiseworthy, and although they do not have hundreds of games in the market yet, with the mechanic licensed to so many other developers, it has spread like wildfire. With new technology and creative features being injected into the market constantly, it will be exciting to see what further games BTG develops and where they will take Megaways next.

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