CLIENT SPOTLIGHT:
Gamblit Gaming
Like many industries being challenged by new technologies and trends, the Gambling and Gaming segment is being disrupted. Gamblit Gaming is taking advantage of this opportunity by developing new and creative gaming systems designed to appeal to the next generation of gamers. We spent a few minutes with Wayne Loynes, Director of Hardware Product Development at Gamblit to discuss his experience in partnering with Catalyst Product Development, Inc.
Tell us a little about your background and Gamblit’s business?
I am responsible for the Hardware Product Development Group at Gamblit Gaming where we are developing the next generation of skill-based slot machines. It was very important to find a design partner that had direct experience in product ergonomics, industrial design, and overall product development—including mechanical and design for manufacturing. Most importantly, being able to take a concept and produce a functional design was critical to me to be able to produce the type of products we needed.
When did you first start working with Catalyst?
I had worked with some individual employees of Catalyst even before Catalyst was started. Given their unique abilities to take a concept through to completed product, I began working with them on a professional level shortly after they started the company. I continued to engage Catalyst after joining Gamblit in 2003.
What do you like most about the services Catalyst provides?
The fact that I can take a very fundamental design concept, work through the industrial design phase and come out with a product that can actually be produced. Having designers that can work through how a product must be designed in the early stages to be able to be produced is critical to me. In addition to design and engineering, they also are able to cover the gamut – molding, sheet metal, assembly documentation–to come out with a production-ready product without having to redesign it in-house after the initial concept models. In other words, they don’t just create concept sketches and let someone else figure out how to build it.
Additionally, Catalyst is very good at taking product concepts from outside sources that have been provided as a guideline of the objective, and being able to adapt those ideas into a producible product while still maintaining the original concept intent. This has proven invaluable on many different projects.
What is the most memorable project you worked on with Catalyst and how did they help you/your company be successful?
For Gamblit Gaming is was the initial Tristation concept product. We developed a single cabinet multi-player slot machine that had never been concieved before to help launch Gamblit Gaming’s introduction to the gaming market. This was key for our company to promote how Gamblit Gaming is looking at our industry in a completely different way than any traditional game manufacture has before. Not just in the cabinet design but the games themselves, and how they are played by the end user.
Describe a challenge that Catalyst helped you overcome and how they did it.
We have had several short time frame product development cycles that had to make a big impact to our investors as well as the gaming market. With Catalyst Product Development Group, we were able to take a normal 12-18 month process down to 4-6 months to develop a new gaming cabinet and complete the product build in record time.
Have you recommended Catalyst to others?
Absolutely! Not only from a design standpoint but also the quick-turn, component-molding aspect of their business.
For more information on the Tristation and Gamblit Gaming, click here.