Hailing from the most northerly reaches of Scandinavia, Air Dice are a developer of money games – in other words, the sort of games you’d wager on at a typical online casino. The Finnish software company have a distinctive design of their own that makes their work easy to identify.
In fact, even their logo is a testament to the firm’s style; comprising a deconstructed dice, its minimalist chic is characteristic of Air Dice’s creative approach.
In addition to developing their own games, which include arcade titles, Air Dice produce turnkey solutions that furnish clients with all the tools they need to get their new online casino or bingo site up and running. They also create custom games, working to the brief provided by the client, whilst weaving in a few ideas of their own as the project permits. When they’re not programming, illustrating and animating, Air Dice use their collective skill set to hone marketing and advertising campaigns that will help bring their wares and those of their clients to the masses.
With just nine team members, Air Dice are a tight-knit group who work closely to deliver projects on time and to the client’s specification. The Finnish software firm are led by CEO Sami Mäkinen, ably aided by CFO Peter Granfelt and Creative Director Teemu Teräs. Five developers and one graphic designer make up the rest of the Air Dice team. The company’s offices are located in Helsinki in the Finnish capital, and they invite interested parties who happen to be passing by to pop in and join them for a coffee. Who said software developers were an antisocial bunch?
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Bingo might not be the most glamorous of games, but it’s been growing in popularity in the last five years thanks to its shallow learning curve and huge social element. Air Dice have been at the forefront of rolling out bingo to the female-led market across Europe that has proven to be the game’s main consumers. BingoBooster is the software that Air Dice have perfected to facilitate live bingo play. It enables bingo balls to be drawn live from a bingo hall and broadcast over the web.
The software also enables players to purchase tickets online and to watch as the draw unfolds in real time. The system successfully fuses the live and virtual elements of the game, with the audio being streamed live from the bingo hall, while a GUI represents the bingo numbers being ticked off on the player’s screen. Due to the nature of this format, the prize may be won by a player in the bingo hall or by an online player. In fact, it’s even possible that both could win, depending on the type of bingo game being hosted.
As Air Dice succinctly put it, BingoBooster connects players to real world bingo clubs. In achieving this, Air Dice have captured the elements that made bingo so successful in the first place, long before the internet was invented. At its heart, bingo is a sociable game, one where interactions with fellow players are an integral part of the experience.
The rise of online gaming has fragmented communities, including the sort of players who would have once met in a bingo hall a couple of times a week. Air Dice can’t bring the players back to the bingo hall, but instead it’s done the next best thing, bringing the bingo hall to the players.
One of the best things about the company’s BingoBooster software is that it’s designed for players of all ability levels, including those who aren’t technically literate. Provided you’re able to access the live stream, you don’t even need to play electronically; you can just as easily play at home with pen and paper, or in the bingo hall in the same manner. For bingo clubs, the benefits of using the software are obvious. Not only does it do away with the haemorrhaging of players to online bingo sites, but it allows bingo clubs to steal players back from the internet in effect.
What’s more, the clubs aren’t just limited to players based in their geographical area; they can target players anywhere in the world. Distance and bad weather can deter even the most loyal of players from attending their local bingo hall. Thanks to BingoBooster, those problems are eliminated, allowing players to get involved from the comfort of their own home on the occasions when they can’t physically attend.
Roulette is a good example of a classic casino game Air Dice have honed in on and refined. It’s not the operation of the game itself they’ve tinkered with – roulette works just fine the way it is – but rather the way it’s delivered to the player. After much toil and tinkering, Air Dice have released mobile roulette apps for iOS and Android that capture all the excitement of live roulette in a real casino.
Air Dice have developed two products, SuperCasino and Challenge Jackpot, which are designed for mobile players, allowing them to place bets and watch live as the roulette wheel is spun in a TV studio. This hybrid technique allows players to enjoy the convenience of mobile gaming while also savouring the thrill that live play elicits.
The domains that Air Dice dabble in are extensive. You can now enjoy a select library of slot machines, such as the Octane Overdrive online slot, where wild dice act as other symbols and you can earn up to 50 free spins of the reels. 24K Gold Reels is an online slot with high volatility, and features such as wilds and mystery games.
The Finnish firm may specialise in i-Gaming, but they refuse to limit themselves to casino games. After all, if they’ve got the skills to code bingo and roulette software, they’ve got the skills to code all manner of other games, and that’s exactly what Air Dice do. Having successfully developed mobile apps for their live roulette and bingo platforms, Air Dice have also branched into mobile gaming, and have created freemium games for clients. Designed to work on iOS and Android, these games are every bit as robust and reliable as the company’s mobile casino software.
From mobile gaming, it’s a small step to Facebook apps, another niche that Air Dice have turned their talents to. They’ve also dabbled in advertising games, computer games, fun games and much more. Pick a platform, pick a business model and Air Dice should be more than capable of devising a game that will be perfect for the task in hand, be it making money, increasing brand recognition or attracting new customers. The company's developers and graphic designer are equally comfortable working with the slenderest of briefs or the most detailed. After all, some clients have a fixed idea in mind, whereas others have only the faintest of concepts, leaving it to Air Dice to flesh it out and make it work.
Air Dice aren’t the largest of software companies, and can't compete with the makers of Merkur slots, or Thunderspin slots, (yet), but then size isn’t everything, as the Finnish firm have ably demonstrated. Because they’re accustomed to functioning as a small team, Air Dice are nimble and able to take on projects at short notice and to respond promptly to emerging trends and technologies. They’ve made their name with the BingoBooster software they developed for NetPlayTV Group Ltd, but have since proven to have more strings to their bow.
While live gaming – notably roulette and bingo – remain a stronghold, Air Dice have successfully branched out into other avenues, from Facebook apps to mobile games and classic online slot games. While it’s unlikely that the Finnish company will look to expand their operations for the foreseeable future, preferring to remain as a tight-knit team, expect them to push out more casino games to the Scandinavian market and beyond.