Today almost all new slot games are developed with at least some animation of the symbols. The purpose of this is to create an initial draw to the slot game. Since animations occurred in symbols that are part of the winning combinations, animations also serve to highlight the winning combinations on the reels. As software technology has developed over the years so has the quality of the animations.

Initially the animations were extremely simple. Borders were created around the symbols in the winning combination so as to highlight them. The next step was to introduce some kind of flashing or color change within the symbol but without any animation in the real sense of the word. When animation was introduced it was restricted to the important symbols like the wild symbol or the scatter symbol so as to make these symbols stand out. Later slot games began to introduce animation in the other symbols as well.

An important step in the evolutionary process of animations was the introduction of audio. The animations were accompanied by suitable audio sounds that were different from the background music played to indicate wins. There are many slot games that feature animals on the symbols and the appropriate animal sounds are heard when these animal symbols get animated. A recent Microgaming slot Silver Fang has some very realistic sounds of the baying of a wolf.

A recent development in animations is the introduction of video clips instead of the animations. When the relevant symbols become part of winning combinations a small video clip is run within the frame of the symbol. Online slot games based on movies use this technique very effectively. A Real Time Gaming slot game called The Three Stooges is based on the popular comedy trio of yesteryears. Whenever one of the three stooges participated in a winning combination a clip from one of their movies featuring them appeared on the reels. Another online slot game that has used video clips is Cryptologic’s Call of Duty 4. This slot game has a war theme and the video clips depict some realistic war scenes.

Usually the animations are restricted to within the frame of the symbol. However there have been some slot games released over the past year in which the animation breaks the bound of the symbol. One way in which this is done is through the use of the expanding wild symbol. In this case the wild symbol expands to cover all the rows of the reel in which it appears. An example of this is the Mayan Queen slot game in which the Mayan Queen is a wild symbol and she expands to a life-size figure waving her royal staff. There are slot games that exhibit the animated symbols becoming larger even without the expanding wild format. In the slot game T-Rex, the Tyrannosaurus is shown eating the other dinosaurs in other symbols when it features in winning combinations.

Rival Gaming is one of the newer online gaming software providers, but has taken animations to a new level in its unique I-slots. This innovative feature has been described as full-scale animations. The relevant symbol expands to cover the entire set of reels and the animation is displayed on the full screen. Its new I-slot Spy Game has some James Bond like events. One of these symbols is a dry martini. The full screen animation shows the drink being shaken (not stirred) in a flask and then poured into a glass with an olive being added.

The animations in online slot games are only going to get better. There are two reasons for this. One is the development in software technology and the other is the increasing competition between the developers of online slot games. The net result is that online slots players are in for a feast.