Highway to Bell Stack & Collect™ has been selected as Greentube’s Game of the Quarter; what made this the right release to place in the spotlight?
It Highway to Bell Stack & Collect™ brings together the three things we are working hard to trying toactively push at Greentube right nowthe moment: an innovative mechanic, a daring theme, and music that genuinely carries the experience. That combination is what we want our games to stand for, — bold and innovative.
Stack & Collect™ is a new mechanic for us, and Highway to Bell is the title that shows what it can do while wrapping it in a world that looks and sounds like nothing else in our portfolio. When a game delivers on all three fronts at once, it earns the spotlight.
The game transports players to a fiery rock concert in Hell, complete with guitars, amplifiers and larger-than-life characters; what inspired this creative direction, and how did the team bring it to life?
The idea from the beginning was to create two visually distinct games sharing one universe. We settled on Heaven and Hell because it mapped naturally onto the volatility of the two titles ,— Highway to Bell is the more volatile of the pair, while its sister game, Stairway to Sevens, sits lower on that scale. The theme is doing real work there, not just decorating a maths model.
The rock direction came about naturally. The designer is a serious fan of the genre and had the idea of staging a kind of battle of the bands inside that universe: good against evil, or in this case devils against angels, as the two opposing acts. Once that framing existed, the rest of the world followed from it, — the stage, the crowd, the amplifiers, the characters.
The art style is something we had never attempted before, and that is precisely why we wanted to try it. We are constantly testing new directions, and that is what keeps each project interesting, even years into the work.
Highway to Bell Stack & Collect™ presents a very different world from some of Greentube’s more traditional releases; how important is it for the studio to continue exploring bolder themes and visual styles?
Very important. We will keep making the more traditional themes we are known for, because those players are not going anywhere and that content performs. But alongside that we actively encourage creativity and experimentation in the studio. Players expect both from us at this point, — the familiar and the unexpected, — and a portfolio that only delivers one of the two eventually becomes predictable.
Sound is naturally going to be a hugely important element for a rock-themed release; what role do the soundtrack and audio effects play in creating the game’s atmosphere?
A significant one, especially in a game like this. Audio is one of the strongest tools we have for keeping players engaged, and a rock soundtrack fits this experience perfectly. We worked hard to get the music and the sound effects to harmonise so that the whole thing feels like part of one rock concert rather than a set of separate audio cues — the aim was immersion, not decoration.
And players who spot the puns in the game names will probably also recognise where we looked for inspiration when we were writing the music.
Bell Collect and the Mystery Bell Collect features are core components to this game, can you talk us through these, how do they shape the base game?
The Bell feature in the base game is a twist on a mechanic that players already know, — a collector symbol that gathers any visible monetary values when it lands alongside them. The difference in our version is that the Bell can collect everything on the reels anywhere between one and three times when it lands, and nothing on the symbol itself tells you how many. So the player has to watch the Bell swing back and forth, hoping for one more swing and the gong sound that comes with it. That uncertainty is the whole point of the feature.
Mystery Bell Collect fills the same role but can trigger randomly on any spin where Fireballs land without a Bell. It also solves something we cared about: it gives the large Bell set piece beside the reels an active role in the game instead of leaving it to decorate the background. It is the titular Bell, so it needed to be a genuinely powerful route to a big win, — and that is what it became.
The Stack & Collect™ Bonus starts with three spins that reset whenever new Fireballs or Incrementers land, with Incrementers boosting every visible Fireball before joining the reels themselves. Just how impactful has Stack & Collect™ become for Greentube as a leading mechanic?
It is still early, — this is a new mechanic for us, so the honest answer is that we are watching rather than declaring victory. What we can say is why we believe in it. Stack & Collect™ offers considerably more potential than a standard Hold & Spin feature: the Incrementer does not just add a value, it lifts every Fireball currently in view before becoming a Fireball itself, and the reel-locking progression gives the feature a build that a straightforward hold-and-spin does not have. That creates room for tension and escalation inside a single bonus round.
We expect it to resonate with players, and it is a mechanic with a lot left to explore in games still to come from Greentube.
Finally, looking beyond Highway to Bell Stack & Collect™, what can players expect from Greentube’s games roadmap over the coming months?
As always, a good mix: new iterations of the games our players already know, alongside completely new titles and mechanics. There is a lot coming, so it is worth keeping an eye on us over the next few months. The underlying goal never changes, — we are here to bring our players a lot of fun.