Casino Range x Booming Games Christmas-themed Q&A
Booming Games gave the team at CasinoRange an interview about 3 new slot game releases that are set to wow casino players this festive season.
Craig Asling - Director of Games at Booming Games
The 3 new Christmas game releases are Santa in Vegas Slot, 64 Presents Hold and Win Slot, and Polar Buffalo Hold and Win Extreme 25,000. Read the interview below.
Game-specific questions
Q1. Your three new Christmas releases each showcase different mechanics and volatility profiles. How did you determine the gameplay identity for each title?
For this year’s festive line-up, we wanted each game to embody a distinct style of play that resonates with a different type of player.
Santa in Vegas slot is designed as a fun, energetic, medium-high volatility experience that blends Christmas with luxury entertainment. Because the theme leans into Santa taking a wild seasonal vacation, we paired it with collection mechanics that feel active and rewarding - Cash Collect and a Free Spins bonus that escalates through symbol elimination and symbol upgrades. This allowed the game to have a vibrant, event-driven identity with frequent surprises.
Polar Buffalo Hold and Win Extreme 25,000 sits on the opposite end of the spectrum: bold, straightforward, high-intensity volatility. As part of one of our most beloved series, it needed to stay faithful to the core Hold and Win Extreme experience while amplifying festive energy. Its identity was shaped around the colossal new 25,000x max win - a record for the series - creating a big-hit focused title that caters to players who love the iconic chase.
64 Presents Hold and Win naturally fell into a more strategic, progression-driven role. Built upon our popular ‘64’ series, its identity comes from expanding reel dynamics, frosty respins and the 8x8 Hold and Win grid. This gives it a growth-based, medium-volatility feel where players experience steady escalation and visually dramatic board expansion.
Together, the three titles span the festive spectrum: playful Las Vegas luxury, extreme jackpot thrill and strategic build-up.
Q2. What innovations or refinements to your core slot formula can players expect to see across these festive launches?
Across all titles, we pushed our frameworks forward, particularly in responsiveness, animation timing and the maths journey ride, but each release included its own unique refinements:
Santa In Vegas introduces dual collection paths that can trigger features independently. We've also refined our symbol elimination and upgrade logic to create cleaner progression during Free Spins, along with a Wild Gift Collect Spin that delivers high-impact, high-anticipation moments.
Polar Buffalo Hold and Win Extreme 25,000 showcases the latest iteration of our Extreme Hold and Win game series, enhanced to support the massive 25,000x top prize. We refined reel weighting and bonus-entry pacing so the game retains the classic series feel while delivering more intense extremes and improved win-cycle clarity.
64 Presents Hold and Win utilises our expanding-grid system, allowing the reels to scale all the way up to 8x8 with smooth transitions and instant prizes. The Frosty Respins add dynamism to the base game without overwhelming pacing, while ‘Santa’s Gift’ boosters within Hold and Win provide consistently surprising reward spikes.
Q3. Bonus features often define the excitement of holiday slots. Could you talk us through how you engineered the key features and how they tie into the Christmas theme?
Christmas is a season of gifts, surprise moments and escalating anticipation, so each game’s bonuses embrace those emotional beats in different ways.
Santa in Vegas leans heavily into the idea of Santa ‘treating’ the player. Collections build up to festive feature triggers, Cash Collect acts like Santa scooping up holiday rewards, and the Free Spins bonus uses symbol elimination and upgrades as a metaphor for Santa turning ordinary moments into extraordinary wins. The Wild Gift Collect Spin feels like the ultimate Christmas surprise, one spin capable of delivering show-stopping payouts.
Polar Buffalo Hold and Win Extreme 25,000 ties the northern, wintry theme to bold, celebratory mechanics. The Hold and Win Extreme Bonus creates a frozen-arena showdown where every landed symbol glows with festive energy. The towering 25,000x jackpot is positioned as the ‘ultimate Christmas miracle’ - a once-a-season payoff that players immediately understand.
64 Presents Hold and Win uses growth and generosity as its thematic foundations. The expanding reels mimic the feeling of unwrapping bigger and bigger presents, while boosts inside the Hold and Win bonus all contribute to that festive cheer. The Frosty Respins with its ‘frozen’ symbols and snowball multipliers in the base game drive anticipation, echoing snowfall, which gradually builds excitement before the big event.
Q4. Music and sound design play a big role in festive immersion. What was your approach to crafting the audio experience for these games?
We took a bespoke approach to each title while maintaining a common festive DNA to deliver a unique feel without re-treading on common tropes of seasonal sounds.
Santa In Vegas, for example, features jazzy Christmas motifs blended with Vegas-style glamour.
Polar Buffalo Hold and Win Extreme 25,000 then uses a colder, atmospheric tone - crackling frost, deep percussion and subtle choir pads - to match its tundra setting. The Extreme Bonus ramps up with dramatic, weighty sounds emphasising big-win potential.
64 Presents Hold and Win combines playful sleigh bells, warm orchestral layers and gentle chimes to reinforce the charming, gift-filled theme. As the reels expand, additional audio layers fade in to heighten the sense of growth and excitement.
Across all titles, we used modular soundscapes that respond dynamically to volatility spikes, near-misses and feature transitions.
Q5. Several Christmas slots rely on strong narratives. How did you approach storytelling across these titles without letting it overshadow gameplay clarity?
Each game has its own narrative structure - storytelling through environment, symbols, animations and progression.
Santa In Vegas tells its story through character-driven animations and environmental humour, letting players instantly understand that Santa is enjoying a luxurious getaway.
Polar Buffalo Hold and Win Extreme 25,000 uses a classic, elemental narrative: a powerful creature in a frozen wilderness. This keeps focus entirely on the Extreme gameplay, adding atmosphere without complicating flow.
64 Presents Hold and Win embraces the classic whimsical ‘gift unwrapping’ theme, expressed through expanding reels and collectable presents. The narrative evolves as the grid grows, keeping players engaged while maintaining perfect clarity.
We aimed to ensure that each title feels full of personality and has its own festive tale.
Q6. What sort of performance or player-feedback benchmarks are you hoping to hit with these seasonal releases?
The holiday period has always been great for us at Booming, and we have seen great success in all our previous festive-themed releases. I see this year being no different, and I think we have a trio of holiday hits on our hands. We’ve taken three different narratives, combined with player-proven mechanics and feature sets, so I see us hitting an all-time high for this year's final releases.
Festive-Slots / Seasonal Industry Questions
Q7. As more studios release seasonal content, how does Booming Games ensure its Christmas titles feel premium and technologically ahead of the curve?
We treat all of our seasonal games as flagship titles and not quick cash-in opportunities. Each year, we push the boundaries in terms of everything from art, animation, maths and mechanics to give truly unique experiences as much as any of our other roadmap games, so with that, we incorporate all the latest advancements in technology and market trends to ensure we are creating games to remember and not just for Christmas!
Q8. How do you balance the appeal of limited-time, holiday-themed slots with the need to create titles that still perform well throughout the year?
It’s hard to truly hit the mark for both, since not being festive/seasonally aligned enough might see the game not get the push or reach of its desired players. We try and strike a balance with our seasonal themed releases, some of which we go full on holiday mode like 64 Presents Hold and Win, which oozes that festive cheer. We accept that it has a limited shelf time across the year, but then with games like Polar Buffalo, we ensure it feels festive but not restrictive: more charming than exclusively Christmas-bound. That lets operators keep the games live into Q1 and beyond, with gameplay robust enough to sustain player interest at any time of the year.
Q9. Looking beyond Christmas, what key development focuses or new directions can players expect from Booming Games in Q1 2026?
2026 is shaping up to be a big year for us at Booming. Firstly, we have an increased game release roadmap starting in Q1, meaning more amazing Booming games for our players to enjoy! Secondly, we are focusing on bringing brand new mechanics and feature sets we are really excited about sharing, and lastly, we are continuing to build upon our most successful game families/series, so there will be more Fish Tales, Buffalo Hold and Win, Mr Oinkster, Trio and Power Hit games to come!
