When Duck Hunters dropped in 2024, it didn’t just become a surprise smash hit – it reshaped what Nolimit City could be. Behind its success was Jasper Lindblom, a math prodigy from Stockholm who joined NLC after a fast-tracked career. Now, with Gator Hunters set to continue the redneck chaos, we caught up with Jasper to talk about swampy sequels, streamer hype, the magic of boosters, and how a mathematician ended up shaping one of the most beloved new universes in slots.
From early struggles to unexpected max win clips from top streamers, Jasper shares the highs, pivots, and unfiltered insights that make Nolimit City one of the most unpredictable studios in the game.
Bigwinboard (Daniel): Hi Jasper, very nice to talk to you. You’re Swedish like me? Hallå, hallå! Where did you grow up?
Jasper Lindblom: I’m from Stockholm. Tjena! It is likewise very nice to be talking to you. Thank you for the opportunity, Daniel.
Bigwinboard (Daniel): My pleasure! How did you get into the iGaming industry? What path did you take and what what have you done prior to joining the wacky team at Nolimit City?
Jasper Lindblom: Having studied mathematics in university, I wanted to work on something related to probability theory so I thought slots, betting, finance or perhaps data analysis could be fun. I quickly ended up at Lady Luck Games as their first game mathematician. It was remote work for a small company so I naturally was quite lost in the beginning. Turns out though that they had hired a senior game mathematician that started a month or two after me. We created a system of tools to help us model and fine-tune games. It was a valuable experience to be able to start from scratch.
Less than a year later I switched to Relax Gaming and worked from their Stockholm office. It was a brief but eye-opening experience for what a more standard way of working with slots can look like. In the end, the corporate life felt uncomfortable and after just a few months I found myself at Nolimit City, still as a game mathematician.
Bigwinboard (Daniel): Wow, that’s quite a run! What was your image of NLC before joining them?
Jasper Lindblom: My first memory of Nolimit City was when I was still at Lady Luck Games and visited their office in Riga. They were hosting an office party with pizza and we were browsing competitor’s games. Someone turned on a video about Remember Gulag and people thought it was hilarious. The strong brand of NLC was always what I heard people talk about, not any particular game. When joining the company, I didn’t know what to expect except other than that it would be something different than before.
Bigwinboard (Daniel): Yeah, Remember Gulag was a bit of a controversy when it came out, but then again, what NLC release isn’t haha. You started off with a real bang as it turned out. Your first game, Duck Hunters, became a huge success. Were you surprised by how well it was received? It actually scored a whopping 9 out of 10 on Bigwinboard, so we knew it had potential.
Jasper Lindblom: We, of course, hoped it would surprise some people, but no one saw it exploding like it did. A month before the release I thought we were almost finished with the game. But then I was clearly told by the higher-ups that there is no point in being complacent. When creating a game at NLC, we try to make the game as good as possible. There is no fixed start or end. It all is an iterative process where you try to be creative and come up with something unique. Besides, we know that releasing 10 bad games means less than creating a single banger. I am glad we put in that extra effort into the game to push it to the next level because the game really took off.
Bigwinboard (Daniel): It’s been trending on our most visited slots for weeks now! How did you come up with the idea for Duck Hunters? Originality must be quite a challenge given how many games are flooding the market.
Jasper Lindblom: It was, of course, a collective effort with many voices being heard. And the road to the final product was by no means straight. The initial idea of combining Sugar Rush-like multipliers with scatter pay came from a client programmer, Viktor Landén. (I still owe him a tray of Monster energy drinks.) Earlier, we had worked on a few games together, among one which was Outsourced. Early on in the prototyping phase it became evident that Duck Hunters had similar potential to that game. The inclusion of crazy boosters like Day 2, Day 64 and Day 1024 Spins felt supported by the embrace of Outsourced which had already paved the way.
Despite those similarities, the theme of the game started out as something completely different. The first idea was to make it into a Fire In The Hole spin-off with flying dynamites that could additionally boost the multipliers. We then got handed a theme idea of the game play taking place in a dumpster. But by placing this dumpster next to a casino, the style became too classic so it was perceived as off-brand and the theme got scrapped.
On a different level, Tiger (known for Pirots, Tanked and much more) mentored me as I was handling the project. The perspective from a game designer’s view (where you have graphics, animations, game flows and sounds, to name a few) is much different from just looking at numbers and mechanical prototypes which was what I was more used to, so the mentorship became a literal game-changer.
Bigwinboard (Daniel): That’s quite a strong line-up I must say! And now you’re about to release the follow up, Gator Hunters! Tell us about that one.
Jasper Lindblom: The yanks have made their way to Florida to track down a legendary alligator. Revolvers will be spinning, and it is again all about hitting big multipliers, but in a fundamentally different way from Duck Hunters. Crazy boosters will return in new forms, and so is the extra spin option. Four different Freespins modes are available with the Lucky Draw being spiced up as well. There is a lot of different game play packed in this one.
Bigwinboard (Daniel): What would you say is the biggest difference between the two?
Jasper Lindblom: Although we remain in the same redneck universe, the change in mechanics creates a completely different game. We still keep the same grid size and the scatter pay mechanics, but the way to get those big multipliers is not the same. From this point of view the game is more of a spin-off rather than a sequel to Duck Hunters.
Bigwinboard (Daniel): Can’t wait to try it! How does it feel to see streamers, or even regular players for that matter, enjoy a game that you’ve created?
Jasper Lindblom: It is surreal. When entering the industry I checked out streamers as a way to get into what slots were really about. Trainwreckstv playing Wanted Dead or a Wild with his high view count and staggering bet sizes caught my attention. Seeing him 3 years later celebrating hitting the max win on Duck Hunters on the very first day of release, wow, that was really wild!
Bigwinboard (Daniel): I can imagine! So, will this turn into something like the Big Bass series now? Tax Man Hunters, Politician Hunters, Max Win Hunters? The possibilities must be endless he he.
Jasper Lindblom: The success of Duck Hunters with its positive, familiar American feeling, and bright colours, created a new space for NLC that is different from the darker themed games like Mental and San Quentin or more irreverent styles like Home of the Brave and Flight Mode. There is much we can do with this space and more animals will be hunted down, for sure. We never plan too far ahead here at NLC but there will be a Duck Hunters 2.
Bigwinboard (Daniel): You heard it here first y’all! Any other insights you can share? What are you looking forward to the most in the 2025 NLC year?
Jasper Lindblom: Tanked 3 will surely surprise people. It will be interesting to see how the community reacts.
And that’s a wrap!
