Brazil, 28th of January 2026

Today, we sat down with our Art Director and Co-Founder, Thomaz Scalzilli, to talk about the work that goes into designing 4ThePlayer’s slots as well as what extra care they have to take when it comes to designing sequels.

As Art Director and Founder of 4ThePlayer, you’ve been involved in the design of all our slots. Do you have a slot in mind that was the most fun to create?

Thomaz: It’s impossible to pick just one as the most fun to create since it’s been more than 50 games, but one of the first that comes to my mind is 10,000 BC Doublemax. I really enjoyed the theme of that game, and while the team was working on it, every piece of the puzzle fell into place naturally. We really enjoyed how well the creative process was flowing.

What slot was the most challenging to design?

Thomaz: The 4 Fantastic Vikings Go Fishing series was a big challenge since you’re mixing up 2 very successful IPs into one game. You’ve got to create a balance that fits both game styles and feels fresh and new while remaining faithful to the source material.

You’ve worked on many sequels over the years, with the 4 Fantastic series, the Buffalo series, and the new 10,000 X Gold, just to name a few. What is the biggest challenge when coming up with the design for a sequel?

Thomaz: Identifying the parts of the game you want to keep and which ones to improve (or change!) is always challenging. You don’t want to modify things too much so they become unrecognisable, but at the same time, you need to keep things fresh and new. For some games, this is clearer from the beginning, and for others, it requires more research and brainstorming.

Finally, how do you make each game have its own personality while not straying too far from the original so as to become unrecognisable?

Thomaz: You’ve got to identify the key elements from the original game. What was iconic? What do we think really worked? Then you keep those things and improve upon them. A lot of times, when we finish a game, there are a lot of ideas that we weren’t able to implement, so normally the sequel is a good place to get those in. You just need to keep the core of the game recognisable and build around it