Whom can I hire to check my slot math?

Quote: MichaelBluejay

I'm gonna start offering slot-math services so I'd like to hire someone to check my work, on at least my first few, to make sure I got it right. I wrote to a couple members here who I know used to do that work but they say they're too busy these days. Who's available, or would you recommend?

If you're suggesting yourself, please let me know how much you'd charge, since I need to make sure I'm charging at least as much as I'm paying for the double-check, to make sure I don't go into the red.

I actually did some slot-math for hire before, but it was a long time ago (the Wizard helped me back then), and I'd like my portfolio to be more recent and more extensive.

I likely won't accept anything too challenging like exploding wilds.
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Quote: Ace2

Out of curiosity, how much does something like that pay per job/hour?

Quote: Mission146

Depending on how complicated it is, I would be capable of double-checking some stuff. Even with the highly complicated things, there is a good chance that I could find mistakes, if any existed, even though I might not be able to confirm that it's 100% perfect.

My charge would be nothing. However, because of that, it would be a, "I'll get to it when I get to it," sort of thing.

Quote: MichaelBluejay

Quote: Mission146

Depending on how complicated it is, I would be capable of double-checking some stuff. Even with the highly complicated things, there is a good chance that I could find mistakes, if any existed, even though I might not be able to confirm that it's 100% perfect.

My charge would be nothing. However, because of that, it would be a, "I'll get to it when I get to it," sort of thing.

Thank you very much for the generous offer! I might take you up on this, but I'm first gonna try to find a "pro" who's done this professionally.
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Quote: MichaelBluejay

FWIW, I just added an example of a fully-programmed slot in Javascript (sans graphics) to my new How to Program a Slot Machine article.
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Quote: Mental

It is not the odds but the RTP that is important...

Quote: DRich

Robert's suite of slot tools looks impressive. I have never used them but always wanted to. About once a year I would go to his site just to see what has changed. I probably did that for 15 years and was always happy to see that it was still in business. In the early days I just remember it as a guy with a cool tool, obviously he made a successful business out of it.

I don't think he can post links but I will. Check his site out.

https://slotdesigner.com/

Link to his free book: https://slotdesigner.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/Elements-of-Slot-Design-3rd-Edition.pdf
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Quote: Mental

I don't understand how stacked symbols are implemented and I did not notice any reference to this in the book. In very many slot games, the reels are different on every spin. I have a model of Scarab, and it is clear that the lower valued symbols are stacked more often than the higher value symbols. If there are N stacked symbols, is there a set of N completely different reels that are selected from randomly on each spin? Or is there a single starting reel template that is randomly modified to create the different stacks?

Quote: RobertMuir

Quote: Mental

I don't understand how stacked symbols are implemented and I did not notice any reference to this in the book. In very many slot games, the reels are different on every spin. I have a model of Scarab, and it is clear that the lower valued symbols are stacked more often than the higher value symbols. If there are N stacked symbols, is there a set of N completely different reels that are selected from randomly on each spin? Or is there a single starting reel template that is randomly modified to create the different stacks?

I'm not entirely sure I understand, but I'll give it a go.

I don't use Excel so I'm not the best person to explain it. When I wrote that book I spent quite a bit of time working though it so I could explain it clearly, and getting feedback from game designers to make sure its correct. To answer the question properly I'd have to do the same thing again and I don't have the time right now. I'll add it to my notes to look at for the next update, whenever that is.

I looked at stacked scatters, on page 8 and 9, and I'd take the same approach to bigger stacks of symbols, scattered or not. Setup something trivial on paper and simulate it by hand, then work out how to do the same in Excel. Then extend it into a real game.

How you actually implement it in the game, and which reels you change and when, is a separate issue and not really my field of expertise. I expect you can do it either way, and probably people do. Its more an issue for a game designer and I am not one. I just make sure my software does what game designers want and this is not an issue in that sense. You can see that reflected in the book, as it says how to calculate the RTP, not why the game is the way it is.
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Quote: Ace2

Out of curiosity, how much does something like that pay per job/hour? link to original post

Quote: MichaelBluejay

Quote: Ace2

Out of curiosity, how much does something like that pay per job/hour? link to original post

I found my notes from ten years ago. Someone else told me his minimum charge was $2000, but that included more than one slot (e.g., multiple RTPs, base version + other versions with special features like progressives). Max was $10k, for really complicated features.
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Quote: MichaelBluejay

I found another slot-math-generating software, Slot-IDE, which looks similar to Slot Designer (not a GUI interface, both require editing some code). For a single computer, it's €399 / 30d, €2999 / forever. Seems to have been around since about 2010, and he uses the Wiz' Atkins slot in his example. The proprietor, Saverio Castellano, says he was the lead mathematician for a gaming company called Sogei/AAMS, and then later worked at Aristocrat (and is a nuclear physicist).

Anyway, seems like I could use that software to verify my results.
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Quote: MichaelBluejay

Here's the algorithm I wrote (Javascript) to distribute symbols equally on a reel. I can't help but feel there's a more efficient way to do it. What do you all think?
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void populate() {
  string frag[128];
  // Each char represents a symbol. We'll handle blanks separately, later.
  char symbolClasses[] = "J7321C-";
  // Jackpot, Red7, Triple Bar, Double Bar, Single Bar, Cherry
  int numberOfEachClass[] = { 6, 8, 9, 11, 22, 8, 64 };
  int size = 128, cl = 0;
  for (char * cp = symbolClasses; *cp; cp++,cl++) {
    int spacing = size / numberOfEachClass[cl];
    for (int z = spacing; z < size; z += spacing) {
      frag[z] += *cp;
    }
  }
  for (int z = 0; z < size; z++) {
    cout << frag[z];
  }
  cout << endl;
}

Quote: RobertMuir

Its easier and quicker to just type them in manually and its how games are done in production anyway.

Quote: RobertMuir

There appears to be people on fiverr who could easily check your maths.

Quote: RobertMuir

Its easier and quicker to just type them in manually and its how games are done in production anyway.

There appears to be people on fiverr who could easily check your maths.
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Quote: Mental

MBJ, I added some notes to the bottom of my last code post. Does this make sense now? link to original post

// Javascript.  Distributes symbols evenly (more or less) on a slot machine reel.
// Logic: Builds the reel one character at a time,
//  checking for how many symbols of each class should be on the reel at each point.

symbols = ['J','7','3','2','1','C'] // We'll handle blanks separately, later.
weights = [6,8,9,11,22,8] // Number of times each symbol appears on the reel
size = 64
reelString  = ""

while (reelString.length <64) {
  for (symbolIndex = 0; symbolIndex < symbols.length; symbolIndex++) {
    symbol = symbols[symbolIndex]
    if ( count() < weights[symbolIndex] && count() <= weights[symbolIndex]/size * reelString.length)
       reelString+= symbols[symbolIndex]
  }
}
console.log(reelString)
// J-7-3-2-1-C-2-1-C-7-3-1-J-2-1-3-1-C-7-2-1-1-J-3-2-1-C-7-1-3-2-1-C-J-7-2-1-3-1-1-C-7-2-1-J-3-1-2-1-C-7-3-1-2-1-J-7-3-1-C-2-1-1-1-

function count() { return reelString.split(symbol).length-1 }

Quote: MichaelBluejay

Quote: Mental

MBJ, I added some notes to the bottom of my last code post. Does this make sense now? link to original post

I'm sorry, it doesn't. Like I said, I'm using Javascript, you're posting C++ code, and I don't understand its special syntax, particularly the * operator. But you mentioned adding symbols to the end of a string rather than inserting symbols at specific points, so I made an algorithm that does that, which is less code than my original. I'd originally tried to do it that way but couldn't wrap my head around how to implement it, but given that you did something similar, I tried harder this time.

// Javascript.  Distributes symbols evenly (more or less) on a slot machine reel.
// Logic: Builds the reel one character at a time,
//  checking for how many symbols of each class should be on the reel at each point.

symbols = ['J','7','3','2','1','C'] // We'll handle blanks separately, later.
weights = [6,8,9,11,22,8] // Number of times each symbol appears on the reel
size = 64
reelString  = ""

while (reelString.length <64) {
  for (symbolIndex = 0; symbolIndex < symbols.length; symbolIndex++) {
    symbol = symbols[symbolIndex]
    if ( count() < weights[symbolIndex] && count() <= weights[symbolIndex]/size * reelString.length)
       reelString+= symbols[symbolIndex]
  }
}
console.log(reelString)
// J-7-3-2-1-C-2-1-C-7-3-1-J-2-1-3-1-C-7-2-1-1-J-3-2-1-C-7-1-3-2-1-C-J-7-2-1-3-1-1-C-7-2-1-J-3-1-2-1-C-7-3-1-2-1-J-7-3-1-C-2-1-1-1-

function count() { return reelString.split(symbol).length-1 }

I'm not wild about the three 1's in a row, and I could tinker with the code to prevent that, but close enough.
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Quote: MichaelBluejay

Quote: Mental

MBJ, I added some notes to the bottom of my last code post. Does this make sense now? link to original post

I'm sorry, it doesn't. Like I said, I'm using Javascript, you're posting C++ code, and I don't understand its special syntax, particularly the * operator. But you mentioned adding symbols to the end of a string rather than inserting symbols at specific points, so I made an algorithm that does that, which is less code than my original. I'd originally tried to do it that way but couldn't wrap my head around how to implement it, but given that you did something similar, I tried harder this time.

// Javascript.  Distributes symbols evenly (more or less) on a slot machine reel.
// Logic: Builds the reel one character at a time,
//  checking for how many symbols of each class should be on the reel at each point.

symbols = ['J','7','3','2','1','C'] // We'll handle blanks separately, later.
weights = [6,8,9,11,22,8] // Number of times each symbol appears on the reel
size = 64
reelString  = ""

while (reelString.length <64) {
  for (symbolIndex = 0; symbolIndex < symbols.length; symbolIndex++) {
    symbol = symbols[symbolIndex]
    if ( count() < weights[symbolIndex] && count() <= weights[symbolIndex]/size * reelString.length)
       reelString+= symbols[symbolIndex]
  }
}
console.log(reelString)
// J-7-3-2-1-C-2-1-C-7-3-1-J-2-1-3-1-C-7-2-1-1-J-3-2-1-C-7-1-3-2-1-C-J-7-2-1-3-1-1-C-7-2-1-J-3-1-2-1-C-7-3-1-2-1-J-7-3-1-C-2-1-1-1-

function count() { return reelString.split(symbol).length-1 }

I'm not wild about the three 1's in a row, and I could tinker with the code to prevent that, but close enough.
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Quote: Mental

I am not going to try an explain it further.

Quote: Mental

I explained the whole algorithm in English, but you don't understand that either. link to original post

Quote: Mental

void populate() {
  string frag[64];
  // Each char represents a symbol. We'll handle blanks separately, later.
  char symbolClasses[] = "J7321C";
  // Jackpot, Red7, Triple Bar, Double Bar, Single Bar, Cherry
  int numberOfEachClass[] = { 6, 8, 9, 11, 22, 8 };
  int size = 64, cl = 0;
  for (char * cp = symbolClasses; *cp; cp++,cl++) {
    int spacing = size / numberOfEachClass[cl];
    for (int z = spacing; z < size; z += spacing) {
      frag[z] += *cp; // add symbol to end of string
    }
  }
  string result;
  for (int z = 0; z < size; z++) {
    result += frag[z]; // concatenate all strings
  }
  for (int z = 0; z < size; z++) {
    cout << result[z] << "-"; // interpolate blanks
  }
  cout << endl;
}

Result:
1-1-2-1-3-7-1-C-J-2-1-1-3-1-2-7-1-C-1-J-2-1-3-1-7-1-C-2-1-3-1-J-2-1-7-1-C-1-3-2-1-1-J-7-2-1-C-3-1-1-2-1-7-1-C-3-J-2-1-1-1-2-7-3-

If there are extra symbols, it is because I don't check the divisor for rounding on spacing. I am just trying to give you a simpler method. The *cp is looping through your symbols and appending them to 64 strings. I then concatenate and the interpolate blanks.
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    for (int z = spacing; z <= size; z += spacing) {
      frag[z-1] += *cp; // add symbol to end of string
    }

    for (int z = 1; z <= numberOfEachClass[cl]; z++) {
      frag[z * spacing - 1] += *cp; // add symbol to end of string
    }

Quote: ThatDonGuy

Michael, here is the algorithm:... link to original post

symbols = ['J','7','3','2','1','C'] // We'll handle blanks separately, later.
weights = [6,8,9,11,22,8] // Number of times each symbol appears on the reel
size = 64
reelString  = ""

while (reelString.length < size) {
  for (symbolIndex = 0; symbolIndex < symbols.length; symbolIndex++) {
    symbol = symbols[symbolIndex]
    if ( count() < weights[symbolIndex] && count() <= weights[symbolIndex]/size * reelString.length)
       reelString+= symbols[symbolIndex]
  }
}
function count() { return reelString.split(symbol).length-1 }
console.log(reelString)
//J7321C21C731J2131C7211J321C71321CJ721311C721J3121C73121J731C2111

symbols = ['J','7','3','2','1','C'] // We'll handle blanks separately, later.
weights = [6,8,9,11,22,8] // Number of times each symbol appears on the reel
reelFragment = []

for (symbolIndex = 0; symbolIndex < symbols.length; symbolIndex++) {
     for (numberInserted = 1; numberInserted <= weights[symbolIndex]; numberInserted++) {
      spacing = Math.floor(64 / weights[symbolIndex])
      stop = numberInserted * spacing -1
      if (typeof reelFragment[stop] == 'undefined') reelFragment[stop] = ''
      reelFragment[stop] += symbols[symbolIndex]
    }
}

reel=''
for (fragmentIndex=0; i < reelFragment.length; fragmentIndex++) {
   if (typeof reelFragment[fragmentIndex] != 'undefined') reel += reelFragment[fragmentIndex]
}
console.log(reel)
//1121371CJ21131271C1J213171C2131J2171C13211J721C31127C3J2273CJ37C