Published on 7/5/2024
Web Game Design & Development
Muso Mwango
Category: Betting Firm
Devices: Web
Project Scope: Development
Keno games are one of the oldest and most popular forms of gambling, with a rich history that spans centuries. Today, modern Keno games can be found in various forms, including lotteries and casinos. Fabrika has developed a sophisticated Keno game for our clients, offering a lottery-like style of play with a simple and intuitive design, inviting players of all kinds, and an exciting, fast-paced environment to keep users engaged.
Summary: Redefining Keno for the Digital Age
Our client, a membership-based casino in East Africa, has experienced significant success with our purpose-built Keno game. Today, the platform boasts thousands of users, establishing the betting agency as a revenue powerhouse. A key differentiator in our design is the platform's strategic prize offerings, which have contributed to substantial revenue generation, satisfying both our client and users alike. With proprietary development, it serves as a cost-saving solution, eliminating royalty fees while delivering a stable and scalable application.
Keno with a Modern Twist
Fabrika’s purpose-built Keno game offers three competitive advantages to our clients:
Royalty-Free Ownership: With Fabrika’s Keno Game, our customer gains 100% ownership of a stable and scalable application that can accommodate user demand. This enables the client to save significantly and capture more profit that would have otherwise been spent on royalties.
Engaging Platform: Built with favorable odds and an engaging user interface, Fabrika designed our Keno system to be exciting, offering strategically determined winnings to customers, and attracting users to spend time within the application.
Robust Backend: The Keno game built by Fabrika was created with scalability and operating efficiency in mind. The architecture and design decisions within the application were made to ensure our client could reliably use the platform without additional support after project completion.
Opportunities in Gambling in East Africa
Traditionally, Keno involved selecting numbers on a physical ticket, with winning numbers determined by drawing balls from a rotating cage. However, with the rise of online platforms, the game has evolved, requiring robust development of the following three features:
Random Number Generator: The heart of any Keno lottery software is its RNG algorithm. To ensure fairness and randomness, sophisticated RNG systems are employed, preventing predictability or manipulation of winning numbers.
User-friendly Interface: Successful online Keno software prioritizes a user-friendly interface to cater to players of all ages and backgrounds. This is especially true in East Africa, where users have a variety of devices, language preferences, and payment preferences. Intuitive design, navigation, and a user-centric approach all contribute to a seamless and enjoyable gaming experience for users.
Betting and Draw Options: Traditional Keno software allows players to choose from a wide range of betting options, including selecting the number of spots to play, determining bet sizes, and customizing their gameplay. Additionally, a Keno platform needs to instantly draw results in real-time, ensuring players receive prompt updates on their chosen numbers.
Instant Payouts: Our Keno app integrates with most major digital banking APIs in East Africa, allowing us to instantly and reliably remit winnings to users and capture payments for our clients. This instant and accurate accounting and payout system builds a platform that our clients and their customers can rely on.
In addition to the above mentioned features, Keno was not well understood by customers in East Africa. That's why, with our client's assistance, we defined the significant issues requiring development effort, including educational aspects (a training/demo area), design considerations, and backend payment integration. Our Keno system was also developed to work without consuming significant device resources or mobile data from customers. We proactively addressed limited internet and device bandwidth challenges. Lastly, our project manager identified fragmented trust between vendors and their customers, particularly regarding new digital casinos. To address this, we prioritized traceability with public result draws, providing customers with accurate insights into their game and a convenient way to instantly claim their winnings in-app.
The Development Process
Communication stands as one of our cornerstones for success, which is why Fabrika assigns a customer-facing project manager to each project. Our project managers maintain regular communication with the founders through project updates and development calls. Additionally, Fabrika's teams utilize tools such as Slack, Asana, and Trello to track progress and communicate project status.
Development at Fabrika follows an agile pod model, enabling us to deliver products rapidly and cost-effectively. For this client, we formed a dedicated pod comprising core members, each responsible for one of the three critical areas requested: UX/UI, backend, and payments.
Upon project completion, our client underwent a comprehensive product walkthrough and was able to fully demo their new product within a testing sandbox. Upon handover, their teams received documentation developed on GitBook.io, offering in-depth guidance on each workflow for their customers and internal teams.
Upon handing over the base code to our clients, Fabrika’s team remained available to provide post-launch technical support. Fabrika resolved challenges and scaled resources as necessary to ensure the continued success of the project.
Tech Stack
How we built a scalable and fully online Keno game for our client:
React: Chosen for its ability to create dynamic and engaging user interfaces, essential for an interactive gaming experience.
Node.js: Selected for its event-driven, non-blocking I/O model, ideal for handling real-time data processing and managing concurrent connections.
Rust: Utilized for critical components due to its high level of memory safety, concurrency, and performance, ensuring security and optimization.
PostgreSQL: Employed as a robust and scalable database system for managing complex data requirements, ensuring reliability and data integrity.
TypeScript: Enhances code maintainability, readability, and developer productivity with static typing and modern language features.
Web Sockets: Facilitates low-latency, real-time communication between server and clients, essential for seamless gameplay and interaction.
Docker: Enables consistent deployment across different environments, simplifying the deployment process and improving scalability.
JMeter: Used for performance testing and load testing to ensure scalability and reliability under heavy user traffic.
The Fabrika Difference
Creating an MVP is no small feat. It demands effective communication, meticulous planning, seamless execution, and a robust change management process to ensure successful outcomes. At Fabrika, we pride ourselves on our ability to understand our clients' needs and communicate effectively throughout the development process.
With Fabrika's agile pod design, clients benefit from a dedicated team of developers capable of delivering multiple releases per month (depending on the scope of the project). This pod team structure enables efficient task completion and ensures continuity throughout the development lifecycle, unlike traditional development agencies. Additionally, our agile pod model allows us to bring in specialized team members (extended pod members) for tasks requiring additional expertise or support.
The outcome of our methodology is rapid implementation, rigorous testing for bugs, and comprehensive support during launch and scaling. Our keno game client, for example, has successfully hosted thousands of games, received and transacted millions in transactions. This success underscores the strength of our system architecture and Fabrika's commitment to implementing failsafes that facilitate unhindered growth.
The Next Step for you!
If the success of our client’s Keno game has sparked your entrepreneurial spirit, that's fantastic! Let's schedule a quick 15-30 minute exploratory call to discuss your idea. We're eager to hear about your vision and ready to assist in brainstorming ideas, whether they relate to marketing, product development, or anything in between. And rest assured, all our calls are commitment-free, so you can feel at ease during our discussion. We can't wait to hear from you!