Originally published: https://www.aboutslots.com/news/behind-the-scenes-of-big-stack-lumberjack-an-interview-with-carl-wiggman-at-print-studios

Hi, Carl Wiggman, thank you for taking the time to chat with AboutSlots. Firstly, congratulations on another spectacular game, you guys are really unstoppable when it comes to impressive slots! Can you share a little background about the inspiration for Big Stack Lumberejack?

It came together from a few angles simultaneously. At first, we just messed around with some simple math models and one in particular stood out. The multiplier increasing when stacks landed felt good, even in situations where they didn’t land as a win. Then, we needed something to make it a bit less volatile (at the start, there weren’t any treefalls at all), and I had thought about this little mechanism of stacks falling for a while. On the theme, it’s that certain sense you only get from stepping into the depths of the forest, and we wanted to give the player that. 

There’s no shortage of slots with beautiful natural settings, although they often try to boost the visuals with additional elements or inject a bit of a fantasy or magical fee, as you did yourself in the Plinko series, for example. The Big Stack Lumberjack theme feels utterly pure, and we’re positively surprised how such simple symbols (in terms of the subject matter) can come out so breathtakingly stunning. Was that your direction from the start?

Thanks! Yeah, our artists deserve massive credit for making it work despite the lack of tools to work with. I was looking for that northern forest feel, but we still needed to make animations impactful and something to drive a story of sorts. I looked at a lot of time-lapses of forests changing shape over the seasons, which the artists used to create a sense of progression. Having the character on the side of the reels is something we usually don’t do, but it was a real help in this case. 

Did you have any doubts about basing the gameplay on visual sequences of majestic trees being cut down? After all, it’s a bit of a heartbreaking view despite being able to bring along big wins.

Yeah, throughout the project I had that thought sometimes, seeing some interviews with modern professionals helped adopting the mindset of working the forest with love and dignity. At the end of the day, who loves the forest more than the lumberjack who decides to spend his whole life there?

From some of the previous releases and occasional social media posts, it looks like some characters in your games are inspired by the looks of your team members. Is the Lumberjack based on someone specific?

Hah! This seems like a dangerous route to go down. I wouldn’t say the Lumberjack is based on anyone in particular, no. 

Most of your games seem to stick to the traditional structure of 5 reels and 3 or 4 rows. Do you think it’s a somewhat immortal model that will never become boring to players?

Whenever we look at mechanics, we consider the fundamentals that make them fun. And there, reels and winlines are simply very strong, hence their success. We try other solutions when we feel we have something that requires it, but as long as we feel we can innovate within the familiar structure, we don’t mind doing that. 

Since the game revolves around one core feature, it might be a bit discouraging landing stack after stack of those trees and not capitalizing on it if the Lumberjack doesn’t feel like it. Did you consider perhaps toning down the prize range but making the feature guaranteed whenever at least one full stack appears?

Yeah, sure can be, but only because the potential is so clear. I think we went soft enough with the blue (leftmost) bonus, if you do that one you will likely get some kind of beneficial treefall (5 treefalls per bonus on average). Then again, once you’ve seen the multi madness of the red one I find it hard to go back..

Was there no room for SuperSpinners in this production?

Unfortunately, no, the multis would get too insane, especially since SuperSpinners multiply multiplicatively. 

Personal preference on the free spins variant available in the game? Higher multiplier increments or higher chance of Timberfall? And no saying “Ultimate Lumberjack Spins”!

Hehe. Yeah, without having Ultimate as an option, I’d have to go for the higher multiplier increments one. It's simply too juicy. 

Judging by your portfolio so far, themes revolving around nature seem to be close to the team’s heart. Looking at the Plinko series, Royal Potato 1 & 2, Honey Hunters, and now Big Stack Lumberjack, there’s clearly a lot of fascination with our world. Can we expect more games with that vibe in the future?

Hmm. Yeah, I never thought about that myself, but yeah we do like nature. We want to create worlds we enjoy spending time in (unless it’s Halloween), so perhaps a lot of nature is the result? I'm not quite sure, but immersion is a key pillar of our design philosophy, so I would say yes, the vibes stay intact.