IGT's new studio head outlines his vision for game development

Jamie Knight will take over as IGT's next Chief Studios Officer on January 1. In an exclusive interview with G3, Knight explained that he wants to change the company's approach to game development. In his view, studios have operated like factories and had a structure dominated by product management. His goal is to create an environment where designers understand the commercial decisions behind the games they make and where a strong sense of ownership exists.

Knight said one of IGT's priority areas is franchises and brands. He believes the company's long-standing older brands have not been sufficiently exploited. He said that as a result, they have reduced the number of games and redirected resources to more carefully chosen products, and that this has begun to bring improvements in performance and consistency.

Knight acknowledged that production value and sound design were areas that had not received enough focus in the past. He said mathematics is fundamental, but innovation needs to be carefully balanced. As with Viva Studio, he described how positioning people according to their abilities, rather than squeezing them into predefined roles, has produced better results.

King Khufu, Viva Studio's first game, became one of the strongest-performing new core games on the market. Knight said the math model of the game originated from Jumanji, but the theme, animation, sound and the behavior of the pots were largely redesigned. On the AI side, he said they have been using it in the early concept and prototype stages, aiming to shorten the development cycle by testing and filtering ideas more quickly. He added that they are also exploring ways to speed up the process of moving a game between different cabinets.