The Casino was a simulated gambling environment based in the social platform PlayStation Home. It was launched in January 2012 as a virtual casino space which included the games Keno, War, Slots (3- and 5-reel), Big Six Wheel, Poker, Blackjack and a VIP level with higher-stakes versions of the table games. Players were able to win rewards for their Home avatar as they played and increased their level of earnings, as well as competed to earn a spot on the leaderboards and a coveted place on The Casino’s wall of fame.
The Casino proved extremely popular with the player community on PlayStation Home – servicing over 1.5 million unique users. Up until the closure of Playstation Home, our team continued to support and update the space, taking into account player feedback and requests. Over 2 years we added Roulette, Craps, Bingo, variations on Poker and Blackjack, a monthly Poker Tournament, an Egyptian Slots variation, Video Poker and Video Blackjack, a High Rollers area, a Personal Casino space and table games, and several tiers of reward items including PlayStation Home clothing, furniture, and personal spaces.
During development, I was responsible for:
- Some of the environment and clothing concept drawings
- Creating many avatar clothing and furniture rewards (such as the Evening Gown, leaderboard jackets, Tacky Bride outfit and Penthouse Furniture pack, all from concept drawing to export)
- Collaborating with other team members to create more complicated items, such as the Rabbit in a Hat companion and Complimentary Hotel room minigames
- Environment art for some of the Personal Spaces (the Complimentary Hotel room, the Penthouse, the Personal Casino) and the High Rollers public space
- Later in the project, training new artists on proprietary tools for item & space creation, writing documentation and giving feedback to help artists with the production of quality reward items, props and environments