Inside Social Games

It takes skill to pull off single player chance games when the stakes are zero. No one gets addicted to playing Candy Land and Monopoly, but the thrill of danger when doubling down or calling a bluff in Vegas keeps players coming back.

Super Slot Machines, developed by Davy Campano, David Livingston Kirby, and Robby Campano is an adaptation of a Vegas gambling standard that finds a new home on Facebook. While slot machines require zero skill and get old quickly, the developers do a good job of creating variety, goals, and chat features in order to make the app more replayable.

Simple but effective Flash animations render the rolls of the slots, and each time you pull the lever initially costs a credit. You can earn more credits each day you log in by winning certain sets of prizes (and thus rewarding frequent users) or by participating in partner offers or inviting friends. The prize set is a particularly smart way to keep people coming back, because these simple icons mimic carnival prizes in the competitor’s mind and therefore give them something to shoot for.

The more you play, the more slots, prizes, and abilities you can unlock. The different slot rooms have chat features enabled, so you can talk to people too – something that is usually missing in the isolated life of a real slot player.

Super Slot Machines does a good job of creating an application with enough glitter and goals to keep players coming back, despite the obviously repetitive (and lack of social) game play.

Game play: 4

Development: 7

How surprised I am that this didn’t totally suck: 8