Edvardas Sadovskis of ICONIC21: “Arrow Chase has created a new category, a rarity in the industry today.”

(AsiaGameHub) –   The company’s Chief Product Officer explains how Arrow Chase was engineered to transcend standard crash games by establishing a continuous, shared, real-time environment modeled after live trading platforms and market dynamics.

Exclusive interview.- In a sector frequently characterized by minor variations on established mechanics, Edvardas Sadovskis, CPO at ICONIC21, maintains that Arrow Chase offers a fundamentally unique proposition. In this discussion, the executive details how the game’s uninterrupted flow, collective tension, and market-inspired visual aesthetic helped forge what he defines as a brand-new igaming category, while also explaining the rapid interest shown by operators.

At what stage of the development process did you realize you were creating something that required its own category?

We recognized we were in uncharted territory when the most accurate description for Arrow Chase was simply: nothing like this exists in the market. In other industries, that might be perceived as a liability. In the current igaming landscape, however, it is the most advantageous position a new product can hold. Arrow Chase pioneered a new category, which is a rarity in this industry today.

Arrow Chase eliminates rounds, resets, and downtime entirely. How vital was this continuous experience in distinguishing the product from standard crash games?

The continuous format was our foundational decision, and everything else was built around it. Once you remove the concept of a round, the entire game architecture shifts. The multiplayer aspect becomes organic. Automatic payouts become a necessity. The resulting aesthetic is the only visual language that fits. The distinction between Arrow Chase and crash games becomes impossible to overlook. Crash games are episodic—they build tension, release it, and reset. Arrow Chase does not release. The tension is constant, the arrow remains in motion, and the player stays immersed in the experience rather than observing from the sidelines. This makes it an entirely different product.

The game fosters a shared, real-time environment where every player tracks the same arrow movement simultaneously. How essential was this sense of “shared tension” to the initial concept?

There is a unique quality to collective experiences that cannot be replicated. The moment your outcome and another player’s occur simultaneously, within the same session, it fosters a much deeper sense of trust. Financial markets have this. Sports have this. We wanted Arrow Chase to occupy that space. Rather than the solitary nature of slots, we utilized the raw, shared reality of watching the same movement and knowing that everyone around you is experiencing the same sensation. That is more difficult to engineer than it sounds, and more impactful than most formats attempt.

“There is a quality to collective experience that cannot be simulated.”

Edvardas Sadovskis, CPO at ICONIC21.

The visual style draws heavily from trading platforms and live market movements. Why was this the right aesthetic for this type of experience?

Because it was the most authentic choice. Billions of people have observed a price chart and felt something: the urge to act, the fear of being wrong, or the satisfaction of correctly interpreting the trend. That behavioral vocabulary existed long before Arrow Chase, and with this game, we provided players with a place to apply it. The current aesthetic is the game being honest about its nature. An arrow moving across a screen is one of the most intuitively readable images globally. That familiarity is what makes Arrow Chase immediately accessible.

You mention that players can understand and engage with Arrow Chase within 30 seconds. How challenging was it to balance that simplicity with enough depth to ensure long-term engagement?

We protected that simplicity throughout the development cycle. Whenever a more complex element was proposed, we asked: Does this benefit the player, or does it benefit us? The depth in Arrow Chase is inherent to the design itself: it is always in motion. The mechanic can be explained in a single sentence. The experience lasts as long as the player chooses. That combination of immediate accessibility and endless engagement is the most difficult thing to design, and the most valuable asset once achieved.

Launching a completely new format differs significantly from releasing another slot or crash game variant. How have operators responded to Arrow Chase so far?

Operators grasp the opportunity very quickly. Arrow Chase doesn’t fit into traditional evaluation frameworks, but that is precisely what makes the discussion engaging rather than complicated. Our soft launch confirmed our suspicions: when you present something genuinely novel to an operator who has spent years reviewing variations of the same formats, the interest is substantial. There was a void that we successfully filled with Arrow Chase.

Do you believe the igaming industry has become overly dependent on iterating existing mechanics rather than developing truly new formats?

The industry is highly proficient at optimization and understandably cautious about innovation. That is a logical commercial strategy. Iteration is faster, more affordable, and carries less risk. However, it leads to a gradual narrowing of what is offered to players, and eventually, players notice that stagnation, even if they cannot articulate it. The demand for something truly different is massive. Crash games proved that. The real question is whether providers are prepared to accept the risk that genuine originality demands. We decided we were, and Arrow Chase is the result.

“The industry is exceptionally good at optimising and genuinely cautious about originating.”

Edvardas Sadovskis, CPO at ICONIC21.

Looking forward, do you view Arrow Chase as a standalone product or the start of a broader category for ICONIC21?

Arrow Chase is a gateway. We created it to establish a category. The format has potential far beyond a single title. Whether that evolves through Arrow Chase alone or through a wider family of track games, arrow games, or whatever the industry eventually labels them, is a conversation that has already begun.