Gaming Eminence recently interviewed Oleksandr Rudenko, Head of Platform at Playson, to delve into the technical aspects of Playson's integration protocol. Rudenko provides an in-depth look at how their infrastructure, utilising a microservices approach and AWS hosting, ensures high performance and scalability. He discusses overcoming common technical challenges during integration with customisable solutions tailored to various jurisdictions. The interview also covers Playson's effective communication strategies with partners and the Agile practices employed in their game development process.
Gaming Eminence: Playson’s integration protocol has the ability to generate more revenue for its partners. Can you explain the technical innovations behind this protocol and how it impacts speed and performance?
OR) "Faster transactions are the key to generating more revenue. Our reliable and scalable infrastructure ensures our clients experience smooth operations, even during high-traffic periods. More requests doesn’t mean our system will slow down, as our technology can handle surges in requests seamlessly, scaling itself automatically, pre-emptively and to ensure the fastest possible performance globally.
Our new gaming platform employs a microservices approach, in contrast to the previous C++ monolithic server. This platform is fully realized within a cluster hosted by Amazon Web Services (AWS). Our system consists of services which are organized based on domain responsibilities. We primarily use modern programming languages, with backend services implemented using a robust framework. Communication between services is facilitated through high-performance protocols, while data storage is managed with advanced in-memory databases.
An integral part of any business is profit. The more bets a partner can process per minute, the higher the profit. Speed plays a crucial factor across numerous facets of every company, but particularly during the integration process. Our protocol and technical solution of the platform ensures a stable 200ms speed operation for bet command (spin time) with any quantity of transactions. We utilize autoscaling policies to achieve such speed.
Of course, the number and sequence of requests, retries and refunds are architecturally designed to be a fast process, with the default delivery focusing on the important ones and funneling those as a priority. If converting that into the number of spins done per second, it is ~5000 spins/second for jurisdictions with no spin time restrictions.
We use monitoring, which covers pure platform time metrics. We measure latency on all communication chains between services so that we can clearly see the performance of every single essence covered by the bunch of metrics. That gives us a complete understanding of what we know and where we should go.
At the moment we are also working on enhancing our processing speed to 150ms speed for all commands involved in the round trip.
To achieve this we are implementing several strategies focused on optimisation and efficiency. We are continuously improving the performance of our game engine, enhancing data storage and retrieval methods to ensure faster access times, and reducing communication overhead between services to minimise delays. Additionally, we are utilising software-certified RNG for faster and more reliable random number generation. These combined efforts are designed to significantly boost processing speed and overall system performance."
Gaming Eminence: In your experience, what are the most common technical obstacles encountered during the integration process with new partners, and how does Playson customise solutions to address these challenges?
OR) "Obstacles can crop up during any integration process, but we can typically go live in about a week with proper back-and-forth communication. Latency problems are one of the main industry technical challenges, and we are constantly working to improve all components of spin time. This is possible due to several facts. Firstly, the flexibility of our protocol utilizes principles which are very common on the market. This means that a new market player or seasoned operator - core technical principals of Playson API - will be a fit.
We dream about completing integrations in one day no matter the complexity of the project.
We have many tools in place to customise the process – it is never a case of one-size-fits-all. If a client is live in a variety of regions, we have an optimal configuration of the protocol and game settings. This offers pre-built configurations that cover the requirements of different jurisdictions.
Thanks to our knowledge of how certain markets work, we can offer the best solution based on the niches of that region and adjust these for individual partner needs. We customise integrations with custom bet limits, the ability to switch promo features on/off, set default languages, configure pop-up messages, enable autoplay mode and many different configuration parameters which are required by regulations or by operator/platform needs. Any world currency is available by default, and any cryptocurrency can be added on request. Thus, we can fully customise game configurations.
Templates are in place for every regulated market globally, so we have to be fully focused when checking launch configurations so it matches the correct one for a particular market. Sometimes we encounter a case when our partners are addressing us with a request to enter a new market, as we already have a ready-made solution for that. So it is both our partners and us who expand into new markets together.
Our flexible configurations allow us to integrate a partner’s protocol of any complexity with the same lightning-fast speed as if we were integrating our own API."
Gaming Eminence: Effective communication is crucial during the integration process. How does Playson ensure seamless communication with its partners, and what strategies have proven most successful?
OR) "We have a streamlined process in place from start to finish. At the beginning, we discuss what solution our partner requires and what regulated markets we are aiming for (e.g. how compliance requirements will be implemented). Once we are aware of their needs, we discuss start and completion dates for each stage of the process.
As the work begins, resources from within our business are allocated to the partner. We actually have a separate squad which can deliver integration from start to finish with the current roles - Integration Engineer, DevOps, SRE, Developers (FE&BE) and Automation QA. They are assigned to solve any issues that arise. We suggest speeding up the communication by utilising various communication channels and collaboration tools like Slack, Jira, Skype and Confluence documentation base, along with regular Google Meets. Status updates are regularly exchanged, ensuring that our team and partner can work together efficiently. This fosters a rapport based on openness and cooperation, allowing us to deliver high-quality performance quickly.
As the process unfolds, we guarantee multi-lingual, 24/7 omni-channel support, as our team of talented specialists can help take the burden of integration and any client’s API protocol.
During integration, the support team helps set up custom bets and create custom game configurations. We offer different technical support tiers, control response times, and have a self-service portal for partners available post-integration. After integration, partners can send queries to our Service Desk email or create tickets in our support system. The existing communication channel can be used for urgent communication.
We operate with client satisfaction scores to measure the success and efficiency of our communication process."
Gaming Eminence: Playson’s roadmap for 2024 includes the release of seven new slots. Can you share insights into the creative process behind maintaining high-quality slot offerings, and how does your team overcome challenges in game development?
OR) "Game creation and game design is our passion. Playson has a strong culture of continuous improvement, demonstrated by our track record of excellent results. In our innovative culture, changes or hurdles are not seen as an obstacle but rather opportunities to improve. The sky is the limit.
We’ve implemented Agile practices through Scrum iteration cycles, speeding up the development process by investing in the best technology available and hiring the best talents. Our game tribe consists of squads, each working on a new game title according to the roadmap. Every game development cycle employs Agile practices, with team burn down and velocity monitored. We constantly improve our technology, including developing a new game engine that works faster and makes it easier to create new games.
The process of game creation is a structured and collaborative effort where several stages are executed simultaneously to ensure a seamless user experience. It starts with the Concept Phase, where we research the market, understand player expectations, monitor trends in iGaming, and try to predict them. This research helps pitch ideas and create working prototypes. Concurrently, Game Graphic Design is handled by skilled 2D artists and the Animation Team, while expert mathematicians manage the Math Model Creation to ensure the game's functionality. Sound Production is developed to match the game's theme, and the game server is deployed to guarantee smooth operation. Throughout this process, the QA Team conducts rigorous testing to maintain high quality. Simultaneously, Marketing Activities are planned and executed to promote the game upon launch. Well-established agile rituals, talented teams, and regular reviews set up an effective loop, improving game mechanics and features. This integrated approach is common in the industry, but it is the talented individuals involved who truly make it special.
One of the biggest challenges is accelerating the development of quality titles while maintaining consistently high-quality games. The market is high-speed, and development cycles are shortened, but this becomes possible thanks to the modernisation of prototyping bodies, the game engine, and the introduction of neural networks."