Where I start

Studios plan their releases months ahead. Through developer and industry partner accounts, I can see some studios’ release plans, often one or two months before launch, along with game sheets, demo versions, logos and screenshots. Some studios also use distributors such as First Look Games to make material from several developers available in one place.

How useful a game sheet is depends entirely on the studio. Some send a one or two page PDF that reads like a brochure. Others send proper technical documentation, with separate versions for different markets and RTP settings and a clear record of what changed and when. And some partner areas are thinner than you’d expect.

Alongside that I read the game’s own rules, help screens and paytable. I check the game rules I publish against the developer’s material or the game itself. Some documents are for partners only, so I use them to check what I write but don’t republish them.

In the game

Then I play it. I’ve opened and played every game in Slotathon Face-Off using verified player accounts at UK-licensed casinos, mostly in demo mode. UK rules require operators to verify a customer’s age before giving them access to free-play versions of gambling games, which is why I access demos through verified casino accounts rather than unaffiliated demo sites.

Big Bass Bonanza is a good example. I’d never really played it before researching it, and I could soon see why Pragmatic Play has made so many follow-ups. Collecting Fishermen across the top of the screen took me back to the pub fruit machines I played as a student, with their nudges and feature boards above the reels. Pragmatic Play’s partner area explained the mechanics well but had no images showing them, so I played until the features triggered and captured them myself.

That’s the slow part. Some bonuses take a long time to land, and the worst moment is finally triggering one and missing the screenshot because the game has already moved on. Some games pause on the key frame. Others race straight past it, and you start again.

Two limits worth knowing. Demo play inside a real casino account shows what that casino offers, but it doesn’t prove the real-money version behaves identically in every respect. And not every feature I describe is one I’ve watched happen: where a rule comes only from the documentation, the article says so.

When the documents disagree

I expected developer documents to agree with each other. Surprisingly often, they don’t. Sometimes it’s an older game whose paperwork never caught up; sometimes it looks like simple admin, with a market version changed and the document left behind. When two sources disagree, I compare the documents and check which game version each describes. Then I look at what I can verify inside the game.

Wolf Gold is one example. One Pragmatic Play overview gives conflicting Free Spins details, while the in-game rules, the official game page and the UK rules all agree on five Free Spins with the giant symbol on reels 2 to 4. That’s what the article says, and the conflicting wording stays in my notes in case it turns out to matter.

Markets are the other big source of differences. The general material for Big Bass Splash describes Buy Free Spins, but its UK certification says the buy feature should not be enabled. Slotathon is written for Great Britain, so the article describes the UK position. The Feature Buy guide covers this in more detail.

Names cause confusion too. What most people call Cascading Reels might be Tumble in one game and Avalanche in another, and the same name can cover quite different rules. I go by what happens on screen after a win, not by the label. When something genuinely can’t be settled, I say it’s unconfirmed. I don’t guess.

Checking RTP across casinos

RTP, or return to player, is the theoretical percentage a game pays back over a very long run. It says nothing about what one session will return.

On 24 and 25 September 2026 I checked 13 games at 11 UK casinos and screenshotted the RTP shown in each game’s rules: 141 readings in all, each saved under a consistent naming scheme so it can be traced to its casino and date. I rechecked Starburst on 4 October. Once the accounts were verified and I knew where each game displays its RTP, it was routine work. The games were popular ones and nearly all were available everywhere, though Fluffy Favourites was missing at two of the casinos.

The readings show what each casino displayed on those days, which isn’t always the same as the developer’s documented settings. One Starburst client showed 98.05%, a figure I couldn’t match to any configuration in NetEnt’s documents, so I report it as displayed and leave the question open. The full results are in the RTP study, and the Starburst page explains that case. Casinos are named so the readings can be checked, not as recommendations.

About the pictures

I capture gameplay, rules and paytable screenshots during my research, recording where and when they were taken. Game logos and artwork come from developer materials made available to industry partners. Where I use an AI-generated diagram to explain a feature, it’s an illustration based on the research, not a screenshot from the game.

How a page gets published

I keep findings, supporting documents and unresolved questions together in a research database, so I can trace a statement back to its source. I use AI tools to help organise that research and put together first drafts. Then I read and edit every article, add my own take, and check anything that matters, such as a rule, a number or a UK difference, against the developer’s material or the game itself. Anything I can’t confirm doesn’t go in as fact.

Slotathon Face-Off, the comparison tool on many of the slot-mechanics guides, is built from the same research, so you can pick two games and see how each handles the same feature.

Games change, documents get updated, and readers sometimes know something I don’t. If you spot a mistake or have a better source, get in touch with the game and the page, and I’ll update it if the evidence holds up. There’s more about me on About Slotathon.