TrueLab Games

About the Company

TrueLab Game Studios is part of the True Flip group of Malta. The company received its Maltese Critical Gaming Supply license in January 2020. Aside from their launch on the company's TrueFlip gaming site, the lab's portfolio found widespread distribution after inking deals with Slotegrator and SoftSwiss.

The games are designed for play with fiat currencies or digital coins such as Bitcoin. The license allows them to penetrate the entire European market as well as other regulated jurisdictions.

Look for the games at Bitcasino.io, Sportsbet.io, and 1xbet to name a few outlets carrying their titles.

In addition to the Malta Gaming Authority license, the developer is also licensed in Curacao and serves the CIS, Europe, Nordic countries, and Latin America.

However, one of the most exciting developments for the firm in the spring of 2020 was an announcement that they had joined Yggdrasil's YG Masters program.

Beyond the prestige of working with one of the leading Nordic game developers, the agreement should allow the labs to release certified games in markets protected by the Gambling Commission, Gibraltar, and ONJN in addition to Malta's coverage of most of Europe.

Other highly respected developers that have taken advantage of the strengths offered in the program include Northern Lights, DreamTech, and Rabcat. The invitation-only program was announced in early 2018.

The parent company, True Flip was initially launched in 2016 and seems to have been registered in Malta in 2018.

True Flip also has its own Ethereum blockchain and coin (TFL) as well as a crypto-lottery and a casino. The TrueLab venture would seem to be an effort to monetize all of its potentials.

The best news for players in regulated markets is that the launch of TrueLab in 2019 and subsequent deals with Slotegrator and other aggregators and platforms means that the games are more widely available than they would be on a single website.

As of this review, the game lab division's portfolio consists of 9 deployed titles with 15 further games under development.

The studio's primary focus is on video slots. The games come in a range of theoretical return-to-player percentages (RTP) starting with a low of 95% and growing to a high of 96.48%

RNG certificates by iTech Labs applicable to markets and regulations in the UK, Malta, Isle of Man, Gibraltar, Denmark, Colombia, and Sweden are claimed by the company.

The company's current areas of business operations include the former Soviet states (CIS), Europe, Latin America, and the Nordic region. The marketing focus, and therefore game flavor, is on the next generation of players.

Software and Games

All games are developed for cross-platform delivery and deployed in HTML5 for instant play online in any web browser.

All of the games are highly focused on theme and narrative with rich color schemes and appropriate sound effects.

Not all games in the studio's demo-ready portfolio were certified as of this review, with some labeled as "pending certification" with no further explanation.

The first games available include:

• Sun Strike
• Startup Valley
• Victoria Wild
• Mining Factory
• Magic Dice
• Chain’s Code
• Tony’s Reel
• Pirate Bay (Animated Scratch)
• Robby the Illusionist
• Visual Appeal

The studio's artwork is spot-on for its particular genre. The aesthetic is pleasing and special care has been taken with female characters to make them exceptionally attractive while imbuing them with special powers and charms.

Victoria Wild is a case in point. The heroine in the narrative is a tough yet charming tomboy sort. The game itself borrows heavily on the Adventures theme and even the soundscape and fonts of Indiana Jones.

The mechanics of the game are super exciting with wilds, expanding wilds, collectible symbols, an extra reel, and three "locations" where the free spins occur.

The game has medium volatility and an RTP of 96.55%. The max win on this 15 pay line game is 20,000 times stake.

Whenever two wild Tornado symbols appear a sandstorm is triggered. It will blow a wild across the reels and if two wilds match they will release respins with sticky wilds.

Oasis symbols are collected along the way in the base game. Look for Waterfall WIlds to cover the reels in the Oasis free spins.

Collect seven lamp wilds to enter the Lost Temple with up to 25 initial free spins.

Mining Factory is a 5-reel, 3-row video slot featuring Wild symbols, bonus spins, and an accumulative Bonus.

The theme is bitcoin mining so the visuals work around massive electrical consumption. Sort of an insider thing for bitcoin enthusiasts who know that it takes massive computing power and plenty of electricity to "mine" one BTC. If you left an Antminer running 24 hours a day for an entire year it would only "create" the equivalent of .85 bitcoins and would use some 15,000,000 watt-hours of power.

In the background and around the actual gaming screen, players will see endless banks of internet servers in a warehouse with a robot pecking away at a computer. Across the top is a chyron showing the imaginary current price of several cryptocurrencies such as ETH, BTC, LTC, and DASH.

The user interface is modeled in a sort of 3D rendition with meters and switches on the control dashboard. Bets are in BTC and there are 27 lines in play.

Collect bonus symbols in the base game to fill the power container on the right to activate the bonus game.. Choose a cryptocurrency to win the randomly selected prize associated with it.

Bonus contribution is fair and not based on the amount bet at the time you trigger it - rather the amount bet on each spin that collected symbols is used to factor the value of prizes.

Land 3 or more free spins symbols to trigger bonus spins.

High-value symbols can replace lower-valued symbols when you collect extra combinations of them.

Wild symbols can drop onto reels 2 or 4 or both and expand to fill the entire reel when they do.

The game is very nicely animated with an entire narrative taking place around the player.

Moments of anticipation are heightened by sizzling electricity on the immediately important reel. An electric manta ray or skate cheers you on from atop the game and applauds when you match the symbols needed to fill the power container. He zaps a collector with the power and the filling action is rendered in cinematic quality giving the entire game the feeling of interaction, immersion, and player control.

Unfortunately, players cannot skip any actions or win celebrations the developers have decided they need in order to enjoy the game. While this is usually a negative aspect and point of frustration, these mechanics are executed well enough that it seems acceptable, even to a hardcore "spin-button hammerer" and "win celebration skipper".

The Final Analysis

TrueLab is part of a multifaceted company focused on the disruptive world of cryptocurrencies and technologies including game creation.

There's a certain hope inspired by the attention to detail that goes into the games... as if somebody cares about what makes a great gaming experience. That hope is accompanied by wondering about the future of the industry and a feeling of near wonderment.

The games they have produced to date all have something unique about them and each hits its mark in some way.

It will be interesting to see where this company goes in the future... are they setting the stage for a new kind of business ready to dominate an as-yet unseen gaming landscape? It's hard to say, but they are among the visionaries who would, judging by their progress so far.