Old Skool Studios is a small team from Vancouver that spent years building games for other companies before it made slots of its own. The Old Skool Studios casinos in our database carry a short, distinctive shelf: seven slots, from a film noir game to the first real money version of the puzzle hit Jewel Quest.
Below the list we cover where the studio came from, how its games reached casinos through Microgaming’s Quickfire network, all seven titles on paper and what to check before you play.
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What is Old Skool Studios known for?
Old Skool Studios is a Vancouver game developer that has designed casino games since 2010, first as an outsourcing partner for companies such as EA and BC Lottery. It is best known for Jewel Quest Riches, the first real money slot based on iWin's Jewel Quest, and for story driven slots like Epic City and Temperance, distributed through Microgaming's Quickfire platform.
Best Old Skool Studios Casinos
Contract Work for EA and Zynga, Then Epic City
Quickfire, Exclusives and the Road Into Old Skool Studios Casinos
Jewel Quest Riches, a Puzzle Game With a Paytable
Every Game in Old Skool Studios Casinos, Side by Side
Underwater Cities, Tiki Masks and Aztec Rubies
Old Skool did not start out making slots under its own name. The team has been designing casino games since 2010, working through LM Design Werks as an outsourcing partner, and the client list it gave out in 2017 included Electronic Arts, Zynga, GameHouse, Neowiz, Rocket Gaming and BC Lottery. Social, mobile and land based casino games were all part of that work.
The shift came through Odobo, a platform that let independent developers sell HTML5 casino games to operators. The two met in early 2013, and in May 2014 Odobo added Old Skool to its developer programme. CEO Mike McGraw said then that the studio had always wanted to produce its own content from scratch.
The first result was Epic City, a five reel slot launched at the end of 2014 and already licensed by bet365 and Unibet. Odobo pitched it on its story driven elements and detailed graphics, and the studio said it had built the HTML5 game to Flash quality, with one client running on iOS, Android and Windows.
The bigger audience came from Microgaming. By 2017 Old Skool described itself as a development partner of Microgaming and RNG Foundry, and its games went out on Quickfire, the distribution platform we explain on our Quickfire casinos page. Several launches followed the same pattern: a short exclusive at one operator group, then the whole network.
In 2022 Games Global bought Microgaming’s distribution business and games portfolio, Quickfire included, so some lobbies may list Old Skool games under Games Global or Microgaming rather than the studio’s own name. If you cannot find them in Old Skool Studios casinos, search by game title.
If you have ever lost an evening to a match three puzzle game, this is the one to look for. Jewel Quest belongs to iWin, a publisher of casual games, and when Jewel Quest Riches went live on Quickfire in August 2017, iWin’s CEO called it the first real money version of the game. It was Old Skool’s third Quickfire title and its first branded one.
The reels are a 5×5 grid of cascading jewels with a multiplier that can climb to 12x per spin. The bonus is the part fans will recognise: a skill based match three game spread over eight themed worlds, with up to 12 bonus moves, a local progressive jackpot and hidden relics that you pick from at the end for a mystery multiplier.
One honest note on the maths. SlotCatalog lists the RTP at 95.19% and splits it into 61.56% from the base game, 26.50% from the bonus and 7.13% from the bonus jackpot, so a big share of the return waits behind the bonus.
SlotCatalog counts seven Old Skool slots, which means this table is everything Old Skool Studios casinos can offer, not a selection.
| Slot | Released | Layout | RTP listed | Volatility |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Epic City | 2014 | 5×3, 20 lines | 95.03% | Low |
| La Rouge | 2017 | 5×3, 20 lines | 95.03% | Medium |
| Jewel Quest Riches | 2017 | 5×5 cascading grid | 95.19% | Medium |
| Temperance | 2018 | 5×3, 20 lines | 95.02% | Medium to high |
| Maui Mischief | 2020 | 5×3, 25 ways | 96.47% | Medium to high |
| Ascension: Rise to Riches | 2021 | 5×3, 20 lines | 96.24% | Low |
| 6 Rubies of Tribute | 2022 | 5×3, 25 lines | 96.2% | Medium |
The pattern is clear: the early games sit around 95%, the later ones above 96%. The later ones also come with an RTP range, so the figure above is the best version, not a promise.
Old Skool likes a setting with a story, and the later games in Old Skool Studios casinos show it best.
Temperance is set in a dystopian underwater city with a retro futurist, steampunk look. SlotCatalog describes a five stage Survival Bonus pick game, 8 to 20 free games with stacked wilds and a multiplier wheel of up to 10x. Wins can go into a pachinko style gamble with a 50/50 chance to double, which is exactly the kind of button worth leaving alone once you are ahead.
Maui Mischief swaps the gloom for tiki masks and 25 ways, with a top win of 3,000x the stake according to SlotCatalog. Ascension: Rise to Riches, released with Microgaming in 2021, is a low volatility Egyptian game with a bonus wheel and free spins, capped at 2,000x. The newest release we found is 6 Rubies of Tribute from 2022, an Aztec game with Link&Win respins, 3×3 mega symbols and a 2,400x top win.
The list at the top of this page shows the open Old Skool Studios casinos in our database, with closed and blacklisted sites left out. With only seven games, the studio will rarely be the main reason to pick a casino, so look at the rest of the lobby too or browse our complete list of game providers.
SlotCatalog lists a UK licence for the studio, but we could not match it to an entry in the Gambling Commission register, so we do not rely on it. At Old Skool Studios casinos, what protects you is the casino’s own licence, and it has to cover the country you live in. If online casinos are not legal where you are, do not play.
After that, the usual checks: withdrawal limits and processing times, when identity checks happen, which RTP version the casino runs on Ascension and 6 Rubies of Tribute, and whether these slots count in full towards bonus wagering. Jackpot features like the one in Jewel Quest Riches are sometimes weighted lower.
In Vancouver, Canada. Trade press from 2014 and 2017 describes it as a Vancouver studio.
SlotCatalog lists seven slots, from Epic City in 2014 to 6 Rubies of Tribute in 2022. That is the full catalogue you can expect in Old Skool Studios casinos.
Yes. It is based on iWin’s Jewel Quest franchise, and iWin’s CEO called it the first real money version of the game when it went live on Quickfire in 2017.
No, it is an independent studio that worked as a Microgaming development partner. Its games went out on Quickfire, which Games Global took over in 2022, so Old Skool Studios casinos may list them under either name.
SlotCatalog lists about 95% for the older games and 96.2% to 96.47% for the newer ones. Some later titles have RTP ranges, so check the info screen at the casino.
SlotCatalog lists a UK licence, but we could not confirm it in the Gambling Commission register. Always check that the casino you use is licensed where you live.
Seven slots will not fill many evenings. Every other studio we follow is listed below, with how many open casinos carry it.
No studio matches that search.
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