We don’t need to say that gaming is popular in 2025. With about 3.32 billion gamers globally and folks hailing from every continent, every country, there’s little doubt that playing games is a universal activity. In fact, according to that report, 83.6% of internet users across the planet play video games.
Leading on from that, it’s hardly surprising that video game developers have come up with hundreds of niches, thousands of mechanics, millions of different approaches. But how do they keep up that constant creativity and ensure they’re bringing out games people will want to play?
Well, like any creatives, they get their inspiration - at least in part - by checking out what others are doing. We can all learn from this kind of process, and there’s nothing quite as exhilarating as seeing a clever technique or new approach in a game you love and then using that to guide your own game development going forward. It’s not about copying; it’s about inspiration and growth, learning from each other, and building incredible pieces.
The result is that while we definitely still have distinct genres within the video game world, we also very much have crossover and different elements cropping up in different places. The fluidity with which mechanisms move is one of the great things about today’s video game world!
So, let’s explore how some of the top fields influence and enrich each other.
We’re going to be starting with one of the most classic, iconic games out there. Slot games. These have been part of our lives since the late 1800s (thanks, Charles Fey), and they brought some really important elements to the world of gaming: pure luck and simplicity.
Let’s start with the luck concept. Of course, this existed in other forms long before slots came along, but the fast-spinning reels with their varied icons quickly became iconic, and as video games entered their early stages of development, creators were eager to adopt this approach and start integrating it with their creations. After all, given how popular slots were, it totally made sense to use their key mechanic!
And the vast majority of today’s video games use pure luck in certain areas. Yes, a lot depend on strategic elements too, but the luck factor is huge. We love luck because it introduces an element of randomness that keeps games fresh and bumps up the excitement. If you don’t know what prize is going to drop, the anticipation of watching those reels tick, tick, tick is a feeling like no other. The thrill when a really big and rare one hits… well, who’s going to say “no” to that? It’s a mechanic we see over and over again in the world of video games, and that’s because it has so thoroughly proven its popularity.
Without this element of randomness, games can start to feel stale and predictable. If you always know that X is going to happen when you do Y, you’re not going to feel enthused about playing the game for the 10th time. However, if X depends on both Y and a random element that changes with every round, it’s far more engaging and encourages you to come back for more. This luck factor is what has made slot games so popular across the globe: it keeps us guessing and makes us want to spin again and again.
In fact, slots have been so influential in both the real world and the world of video games that a lot of titles actually directly include slot machines. Grand Theft Auto Online? Fallout: New Vegas? Final Fantasy? These huge franchises all contain slot machines for players to engage with as part of their larger universe, nodding to the iconic and important place they hold in our real-life societies. It seems like we can’t get enough of the luck factor, whether that’s in slots or in other games.
What’s the other huge thing we love about slots? For most of us, simplicity. When you’re gaming, most of the time, you’re looking to relax. You want to give your brain a break from the pressures of everyday life. You want to do something straightforward and decidedly not taxing. What could be better than a game where you push a button, sit back, and wait?
Sure, a lot of gamers actually want more depth than this overall, but simplicity very much holds its own, and as a result, many popular games have worked to include the simplicity approach of slots in a variety of intriguing ways. Think games like Candy Crush - the mechanic is different, but the dedication to simplicity is there. Anyone can pick this game up in just a few seconds and it takes very little energy to play it. Lots of other browser games have similarly adopted an approach that allows players to learn the game in just a few seconds and engage with it through simple button pushing.
Why do folks play slots? Rewards are a huge factor, and what’s really nice about these games is that they offer quick rewards. You don’t have to spend hours working on something to see your achievement. That’s especially true if you pick a low-volatility option that pays out small but fairly frequent prizes. Video game developers have recognized how this “reward” approach triggers a release of dopamine in the brain and have been quick to adopt it in their own universes.
Of course, it appears in many different iterations! Maybe you get rewarded for smashing crates (an astonishingly common mechanic), maybe you get rewarded for killing certain enemies, or finding hidden areas. Some games are more grind-heavy than others, like RuneScape, but pretty much all have mechanisms that give players value for playing. Rewards come in the form of XP, coins, gems, mana, lore, and so many other things… but regardless, the concept of small rewards to inspire you to keep playing is very much baked into video games at this point, and there’s no question that this is part of the slots DNA, and has been since Day 1.
So yes, slots have unquestionably inspired video games across the genres… but what about inspiration flowing in the other direction? After all, if slots had remained in their very first iteration and nothing had changed for over 100 years, they’d likely have lost at least some of their popularity. If you look at modern slot games, though, you’ll know that’s not the case, and that’s thanks to looking at video games for inspiration! Let’s figure out what elements slot games have drawn from our favorite titles.
What’s one of the first things you notice if you look at modern video games? Well, probably the graphics, for a lot of us at least. These days, video games are a visual feast. They’re filled with vibrant colors, beautiful character design, eye-catching animations. Slot machines already had the bright colors checked off, but thematically, they were kind of dull in their early days, mostly sticking to fruits that corresponded to the flavored prizes you could win. Today? Things have changed.
Today, if you look at the slots catalog on any good casino website, you’ll see a myriad of beautiful, rich, enticing slot games in pretty much any theme you can think of or imagine. Want fishing slots? Want Ancient Greece? How about cute pandas or ferocious lions or a shark attack? Leprechauns or astronauts? Or if none of those appeal, why not bask in the intrigue offered by Medusa’s myth with Ignition Casino?
It’s really hard to come up with a theme or angle that hasn’t been done! We’ve got holiday slots, gothic slots, princess slots, adventure slots, candy slots, classic slots, and so many more. And this is the big lesson that slots picked up from video games: players want to lose themselves in other universes, so theming counts for a lot. You can win a player over with a theme that speaks to something they know and love.
You might think, “But it’s just a slots game, how immersive can it be?” The answer is: very. When you play one of these games, you can see that although the basic features have been maintained, enormous attention and effort have gone into creating rich universes. Backgrounds, animations, sound cues, even characters - everything is tailored to create that universe and let players lose themselves in another world. This approach might have come from video games, but there’s no doubt that slots developers threw themselves wholeheartedly into it!
People who haven’t played modern slots might be wondering how these games manage to hold their appeal in today’s world. After all, aren’t you just spinning three reels and hoping the pictures match up? How does that compete with sprawling, rich video games that challenge your brain in a host of different ways?
The answer is again that slots have learned from their video game counterparts. They haven’t just stuck with three reels. Instead, we’ve got so, so many different mechanics enriching the world of slots. Have you ever tried Megaways? How about Hold & Win, where you can trap certain symbols in place and respin the ones you don’t want? Or progressive jackpots, where every player in a network is adding to the overall jackpot? Multipliers, which boost certain wins and increase the value of your prize?
And the introduction of bonus rounds has been another major way in which game creators have turned slots into more than just an isolated spin. Bonus rounds can be triggered by a variety of in-game events, depending on what you’re playing, but they add an extra depth to slot games, switching up the play and giving you something to look forward to besides the basic prizes.
The introduction of extra mechanics, therefore, is a great demonstration of how video games have enriched and introduced variety to the world of slots - and we expect to see this carrying on as both genres develop! Video games are always looking for ways to build new mechanics, and slots developers are likely to follow suit to ensure their games stand out and continue to attract modern audiences.
So, do slots borrow more from video games or video games from slots? Well, like many questions about inspiration/borrowing/copying/imitating, there’s really no clear-cut answer. Both genres unquestionably look at what others are doing and use this to inform their own approach, balancing luck, simplicity, quick rewards, theming, and different mechanics to create titles that will appeal to players from all walks of life. And honestly, with how varied and imaginative and sprawling the world of games is, that borrowing can only be a good thing that means players have more to enjoy than ever before!
As humans, we are always looking for variety, for things that will keep the world of gaming feeling fresh, exciting, and new. The only way we can have that is when game developers look around, choose mechanics and approaches that work in other contexts, and build on these to create something different within their own games!
