Jade Rabbit Gaming

About the Company

Jade Rabbit Gaming was launched in 2018 with over three decades of experience behind a small crew of professionals.

We are still trying to determine the backgrounds of the developers, designers, and creators. For now, we'll simply trust that they have "the aim of creating the best high-end video slots to ever hit the market. Team members are behind some of the most successful games ever in the slots market, and have repeatedly created and successfully launched games for desktop and mobile gameplay."

The team made a splash in the industry by becoming the first game development partner studio for the Gaming Innovation Group's GiG Games. The company was set to build six games directly onto GiG Games' platform.

The games rolled out beginning in the first quarter of 2019 with at least four of the six games going out to iGaming Cloud-serviced casinos the first year. They could also leap off the network as GiG Games' initial business plan was to provide games to "other operators" through a new aggregator service to run alongside their existing platform.

The new games first appeared at the following casinos:

• Guts
• Thrills
• High Roller
• Betspin
• Rizk
• Kaboo

The company also serviced several white labels or B2B properties which utilized the iGaming Cloud's powerful platform.

As change is the only constant in the online gambling industry, GIG Games was dissolved when the Gaming Innovation Group decided to go in a different direction. Most of the talent and management became the core of the new EveryMatrix in-house studio known as Spearhead Studios launched in 2019.

Jade Rabbit just kept on keeping on. In early August of 2019, the studio released its Black and White slot followed by Red Hot Reels 11 months later. The studio has kept a slow stream of high-quality games coming out since then.

The measured cadence and the quality of the games would make it appear as if they work on one game at a time from start to finish while always having new titles in the coming soon pipeline - more like craftspeople than a factory.

According to the company:

"We are slotheads!"

slothead/noun
a person fascinated by casino slots to the point where they became the only thing on his/her mind. Characterized by undying and nearly fanatical ambition of becoming the leading provider of top-class games for players and operators worldwide. Led by true passion, will stop at nothing to achieve that goal (trying to interrupt may be hazardous).

Game production ramped up and the quality remained the same then in late 2022 the company announced it had inked a deal with Relax Gaming, bringing the power of the two Jade Rabbit founders’ combined 30 years of experience in slot development to the Silver Bullet partnership with markets in the USA, India, Spain, and LatAm, as well as Northern Europe. In a word, access - to the world markets and online operators every great developer deserves.

Prior distribution platform deals included Pariplay, SoftSwiss, and the former Leander LeGa which was renamed RAW Arena after the Argentinian company was acquired by RAW iGaming.

The deal with Relax broadens Jade Rabbit's exposure significantly and may find the company's titles in more of a starring role at select operators.

Prior to the Relax Gaming Silver Bullet platform aggregation deal, we found the games to be part of several dozen operator portfolios including 777Bay, Arlekin, BetChan, and Casino Heroes among many others. The Jade Rabbit website also lists several operating partners including Mr Green, Circus, and Danske Spil.

Software and Games

The studio currently offers about a dozen slots and two Indian card games - Teen Patti and Andar Bahar. It’s nice to see those games in random number generator (RNG) versions because only a few animated game developers actually offer them - at least compared to live dealer studios.

While originating in India the games have caught on all over thanks to the simple dynamics and easy-to-understand gameplay along with a chance to win decent bet multipliers, especially when doing the blind bet in Teen Patti or a side bet in Andar Bahar.

These two titles, the only table games we’re aware of from Jade Rabbit, are luxuriously appointed with opulent red blaizes, rather than felt table coverings and a rich soundtrack of atmospheric sitar music. The mood is well set and gameplay is decidedly Hindi in flavor.

The games appear to have been created in partnership with Pariplay as the demo games are delivered over a Pariplay server.

Slots

As of the time of this updated review, there are three games in the “coming soon” pipeline in the public domain. Of course, there is no way to know what else is in the works or which direction the studio will take in the future. One thing is fairly certain - we won’t see a bunch of cloned slots or rerun engines. Of course, they might update or revamp seasonal games such as late 2020’s Reel Holidays, but it’s not highly likely.

The studio seems to work through development very methodically with a steady cadence of releases. The quality has never diminished since we’ve been watching the portfolio and has only improved with fun-centric mechanics and well-executed narratives that come to life on the reels.

Black and White slot

The first game we became aware of was Black and White. At first glance, it is a drab-looking game without much promise for exhilaration - who wants to spin reels in shades of gray? But it turns out this game is all about color, you just won’t see any until you land a winning combination.

The colors stay for automatic respins and more can appear, making the payout all the better. Random wilds appear during the respins too. Trigger the free game bonus and collect enough symbols to expand the number of paylines from 25 to as many as 50.

It’s a low volatility game with a max payout of 500x, and the RTP is 96.08% so players should be able to get a heck of a lot of spins in even on a small bankroll. The hit frequency is 24% so you can expect a winning spin of some value about once in every four spins on average.

Word of Thoth slot

Jumping forward in time to late April 2021, we find one of the masterpieces in the portfolio - Word of Thoth. The game was developed in association with Yggdrasil and is a dark yet vibrantly accented Egypt-themed game played on a 6x4 reel set.

Any win, no matter how minor can turn into an earth-shaking payout if the gods are with you. That is thanks to the cascading reels and a win meter that charges up to bring you closer and closer to a powerful bonus round with theoretically unlimited multipliers.

This title is highly volatile with a max win of 7500x and a hit frequency of about one in five but the RTP remains in the comfort zone at 96.12%.

The meter resets after the end of a winning sequence if you don’t experience five wins in a row including the landing of a bonus symbol to move the meter forward. Log in all five advances to trigger the bonus round. In the bonus game advancing to the 3rd, 4th, and 5th position frees up special modifiers (additional spins and multipliers up to 10x).

During free spins, the meter does not reset so once you achieve a multiplier of x3, x5, or x10 the factor will remain until the end of the game.

SteamSpin slot

This game is a 3x3, high-volatility game with plenty of enhancements. The hit frequency is a bit less than one in five spins and the top payout is 8000x while maintaining an RTP of 96.01% across all 9 ways to win.

Features include nudging wilds, steamspin charging, and steamspins.

Nudging wilds lock the reel they land on for a respin and nudge down one position with every respin. Wilds can continue to hit other reels and the original reel after the triggering wild falls off the screen. Each wild charges the counter above a reel and when it reaches 10x the Steam Spin will be triggered.

Land three scatters on a single spin to trigger a Red Hot SteamSpin. You’ll get one spin and the result will be multiplied by the accumulated factors on all three meters for a max multiplier of 33x.

Games conclusion

The only way to really get a feel for a game is to give it a spin. I didn’t find a single title that I would consider a dud or even one that I wouldn’t jump right in and play again for real money rather than dry analysis.

The original maths and mechanics were certainly excellent enough to get the brand a deal with YGM but the additional tools and resources seem to have allowed the math minds in the lab to create even more amazing titles. Let it Slide is one to check out for sure because it has just about everything a high variance-seeker could desire including 96.55% RTP, 21.96% hit frequency, a max win of 12,000x, pays both ways, and unlimited free spins.

The Final Analysis

With continued smart game development and wise partnerships, there’s good reason to believe that Jade Rabbit will be a brand more and more players seek out. It may never reach the cult favorite status of a few of the first boutique studios that got worldwide aggregator exposure early on in the multi-developer online casino revolution, but it is sure to become a favorite provider for many.