Big Time Gaming

Introduction to Big Time Gaming

If you've been a fan of online slots for a while, there's a good chance you've come across Big Time Gaming before.

Credited with shaking up the online slots industry with their innovative Megaways mechanic, this team are known for innovation, volatility, and clever design.

They thrive on unpredictability – in both gameplay and themes – tending to go big on features by incorporating multiple bonus rounds, progressive multipliers, and cascading reels to create chaotic but calculated gameplay.

Launched in 2011 and later acquired by Evolution in 2021, Big Time Gaming have set out to transform the casino landscape, releasing titles that serve a purpose and never follow trends blindly.

We're taking a deep dive into this studio today, so stick around to find out everything there is to know.

Ready For The Big Time?

When playing Big Time Gaming titles, the sky often feels like the limit. Despite having some clearly recognisable mechanics they return to time and time again, this studio definitely strive to innovate, with each new title looking and feeling different to the last.

With unique stylings and fun themes, players across the globe can't get enough of this studio, even though they have considerably less releases than some for their competitors.

One of the standout releases within their catalogue is the win potential they offer players.

Big Time Gaming are one of very few providers that don't offer maximum wins on their games – and although at first glance this might seem like a bad thing, it means there's actually no limit to how much you can win.

Big Time Gaming's Most Recognisable Releases

Each of the releases in the Big Time Gaming catalogue are known for their highly volatile maths models, huge win potential, exciting mechanics and fun themes.

That said, there are some releases that stand head and shoulders above the rest, making them instantly recognisable to all players – even those that don’t consider themselves lovers of this studio.

Let’s take a look at 5 of these below – handpicked by our team of reviewers for their brilliance and popularity.

The Megaways Mechanic

The Megaways mechanic is not only the crowning jewel in Big Time Gaming history – it's objectively the most popular slot mechanic ever created.

If you're a relatively new player, Megaways might seem bland to you.

After its early success, dozens of slot studios licensed the mechanic, which means it's one of the most common mechanics to see – leading to an air of over saturation.

That doesn't take away from the achievement, however. If anything, it adds to it.

A relatively simple idea, Megaways introduced a reel system where a random number of symbols landed on each spin, producing a random number of ways to win each time the reels landed – up to 117,649.

Usually combined with a progressive enhancing win multiplier that doesn't reset during free spins, this mechanic might be simple – but it's potent.

4 Reel Slots from BTG

You would think the fewer reels there are, the more boring a new slot release would feel.

However, the team at Big Time Gaming have been working hard over the years to dispel that myth – releasing a variety of 4-reel titles that are each as exciting as the last:

• Donuts
• Chocolates
• Burgers
• Boo

Although these don't officially form any kind of series, they do co-exist well and follow on easily from each other – the boxes within Donuts naturally lead into the sticky symbols of Chocolates, both of which in turn lead into Burgers, with more complex features.

At Hideous Slots, our team are big fans of the 4-reel releases from this studio – check out one of our highlight videos on Donuts below.

Exploring the Mega Mechanics

The Megaways mechanic isn't the only ‘Mega' mechanic from this team, who are squeezing Mega in front of every word they can find until they run out of steam.

Alongside Megaways, players can find the following Mega mechanics in the Big Time Gaming catalogue:

• Megaclusters – a cluster pays mechanic increasing the amount of possible win-ways whilst decreasing the size of symbols.
• Megaquads – four reels in play at once time, offering the possibility of connecting reels together to produce up to 16 million ways to win.
• Megapays – a progressive jackpot mechanic, building four different pots of money up with the potential to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars.
• Megadozer – a twist on a classic coin pusher machine, pushing coins over the edge onto the reels below to trigger modifiers and features

Latest Releases from Big Time Gaming

No matter what other studios do, Big Time Gaming refuse to sacrifice their release quality, which is the reason that still today they release only around 6 slots per year.

Taking a quality over quantity approach, this team are notorious for taking their time and fine-tuning their titles before letting casinos and players near them.

Because of this, each new release is met with excitement and high expectations from the community of players that have come to love and respect their craft.

Check out some of their most recent releases below, and read our reviews of them.

BTG Progressive Free Spins Features

Although it seems like a pretty standard feature now, online slots didn't always have progressively achieved Free Spin rounds, or super bonuses – and Big Time Gaming were one of the first studios to pioneer this idea.

Introducing a special enhanced feature triggered by collecting bonus teases in both Lil' Devil and Royal Mint, this set a standard for a number of other studios to play with mechanics similar to this – great news for players who like to feel as though they're working towards something.

Over the years, Big Time Gaming have implemented the idea of progressive or super features in the following releases:

• Kingmaker Megaways
• Slot Vegas Megaquads
• Pirate Pays Megaways
• Max Megaways 1, 2 and 3
• Outlaw
• Over the Moon
• Boo

The Origin of Bonus Buys

Given the popularity of bonus buys with studios like Nolimit City and Hacksaw Gaming, you would be forgiven for not knowing that Big Time Gaming actually pioneered the bonus buy with White Rabbit.

Once more licensing requirements and legislation came in, the team decided to stop continuing to produce titles with bonus buys, however it wasn't long before they changed their mind again.

Maybe because they saw other studios receiving so much love for the very feature they created or maybe just because they missed the idea, Big Time Gaming are back producing bonus buy titles again, although unlike some of the riskier studios out there, they stick around the 100x bet mark consistently.

Big Time Gaming's Win Exchange

Alongside introducing new and exciting features to enhance the experience while the reels are spinning, the team at Big Time Gaming also seek to introduce features to improve players' chances of triggering features.

Of course, we're talking about Win Exchange.

Titles with Win Exchange set thresholds according to the value of the bonus (equal to the cost of the bonus buy). If you win an amount equal to this value in the base game, you can exchange your win for Free Spins.

If your win amount is higher than the value, you can exchange your win and keep the change.

If your win amount is lower than the value (but still above the lower threshold – usually around 20 or 25x bet), you will have to gamble, risking your entire win for a chance to trigger Free Spins.

Win Exchange is totally optional – at no point are you forced to gamble or exchange.

Music in Big Time Gaming Titles

One of the most memorable aspects of Big Time Gaming slots is the music they offer.

Having licensed a variety of tracks over the years, this is one studio you won't want to have on mute whilst playing.

Throughout their catalogue, you'll find the following tracks:

• The Final Countdown
• Wild Flower
• Outlaw
• Danger! High Voltage
• She Sells Sanctuary
• Gold
• Lil' Devil
• Rasputin

Playing Big Time Gaming Slots

Over the years, Hideous Slots have worked with Big Time Gaming numerous times to launch their new titles to our audience.

This has involved creating fun trailers for the upcoming releases (like our infamous Beef Lightning clip) that got increasingly detailed, or hosting live launch streams, where we played these new releases with our own money and shared some information about them with our audience.

Naturally, some days were luckier than others, but our luckiest by far was our launch stream on Millionaire Rush. As if this new mechanic wasn't fun enough, our streamer Will reached the top twice – paying him out over 3,000x bet.

Watch the clips of this stream below.

Hideous Slots: The Voice of Spicy Meatballs

Alongside launching the titles released by Big Time Gaming, our biggest claim to fame at Hideous Slots is that our very own founder, Will, is the voice of Spicy Meatballs!

After being approached by the team to provide a humorous voice with an Italian twang, Will took no time to think about it before he was donning a chef's hat for inspiration and churning out the clichés.

It's one of those funny little facts that both makes us smile when we remember, but also highlights how much joy Big Time Gaming find in their craft.

Between appearing in live chats and speaking to viewers, and offering the potential to voice characters to players, they really do have fun.

Final Thoughts on BTG

Big Time Gaming has earned its place at the table of great game providers – their releases give players creative themes, interesting features, and well-balanced maths models – with historically high RTPs that are fixed values.

Add in the fact that their titles are unique, well presented, and often feature soundtracks that you can't help but sing along to, and it's no wonder this studio is one of the best.

If you're looking for a release with impressive potential and rewarding features, this provider is definitely one to consider.

Always remember to play responsibly and only gamble with money you can afford to lose.