What happens when a slot hangs its whole bonus structure on two characters instead of one? That is the question the Just Buried slot from Incredible Technologies tries to answer. The game pairs a zombie honeymoon theme with a split bonus setup, giving the undead bride and the undead groom their own separate features, then layers upgrades and retriggers on top. It was shown publicly at G2E in a video demo with Kelsey Reish, Incredible Technologies’ Senior Product Marketing Manager, and the plan outlined there was a casino floor launch at the end of the year.
What exactly is the Just Buried slot?
It is a zombie theme slot game built around a wedding gag: newlyweds who happen to be dead, honeymooning in a graveyard. Tonally it reads as comic rather than horror, which is the usual approach when a supplier wants a monster theme to work on a general casino floor rather than a niche corner of it.
Mechanically, the parts Incredible Technologies put on show are a tiered prize structure, upgrade scatters that can move you up through those tiers, growing multipliers, and free spins that can retrigger. Two distinct bonus experiences sit underneath, one tied to the bride and one to the groom.
Worth saying clearly up front: the demo was a feature walkthrough, not a spec sheet. Reel layout, RTP range, bet denominations and the cabinet it ships on were not part of what was shown. If you see those numbers quoted anywhere before the game is on a floor, treat them with suspicion until Incredible Technologies publishes them.
How do the bride and groom bonuses differ?
This is the design idea that makes Just Buried interesting. Rather than one bonus round with cosmetic variations, each zombie newlywed gets a bonus built around their own character, with different features attached. So the question in the bonus is not only “how much” but “which one am I in”, because the two play differently.
From a player’s point of view, the practical effect of a split bonus is variety across a session. Instead of seeing the same free spins loop every time you trigger, you cycle between two feature sets with their own rhythm. It also gives the game two things to talk about on the glass, which is partly why suppliers like character-based bonuses: a bonus with a face is easier to remember than a bonus with a name.
What the demo did not break down is the trigger split. Whether the bride or groom bonus is awarded randomly, by symbol, or by some qualifying condition is detail still to come with the floor release.
What do the upgrade scatters actually do?
In the walkthrough, Reish showed upgrade scatters moving players into higher prize pools and increasing multipliers as the bonus unfolds. Unpack that and you get the structure most layered slot bonuses use now:
- Tiered prize pools. The credit values available to you are not fixed for the whole bonus. They sit in bands, and landing the right symbol promotes you into a higher band, swapping the pool you are drawing from.
- Multiplier growth. Separately, a multiplier applied to prizes can climb during the bonus, so the same prize value collected later in the round can be worth more than it was at the start.
- Retriggers. Free spins that can add more spins while the bonus is live, which keeps any accumulated upgrades in play longer.
Stacked together, those three ideas are why the phrase “layered” fits. Each layer is conditional on the one before it, so a bonus can stay small or escalate quickly depending on what lands. That is a volatility design choice more than a generosity one. Upgrade mechanics tend to make the distribution of bonus outcomes wider: a lot of modest rounds, occasionally a round where the tiers and the multiplier both move. Volatility shapes how the swings feel, but it does not change a game’s long run return, which is set by the paytable and the math model, not by how exciting the bonus looks.
Why does a layered bonus structure keep showing up in new slot releases?
Because it solves two problems at once. Players get visible progress inside a bonus round, with something changing on screen rather than ten identical free spins ticking down. And designers get a dial they can turn: adjust how often upgrades land and the whole personality of the game shifts without redrawing a single symbol.
The trade-off is cognitive load. A game with prize tiers, upgrade scatters, growing multipliers and retriggers has a lot to explain in the few seconds a player spends deciding whether to sit down. Games in this style usually live or die on how clearly the bonus telegraphs what just happened. Did I move up a tier? Did my multiplier change? If a player cannot tell, the layers are wasted. That is the thing to judge Just Buried on when it reaches a floor near you.
Where does this sit for Incredible Technologies?
Context from the demo matters here: Just Buried was the only unreleased game Incredible Technologies showed at G2E. Everything else on the stand was already out or announced. For a supplier, choosing a single unreleased title to put in front of operators and trade press is a signal about what it is backing for the next cycle, and in this case the pick was a comedy horror theme with a two-character bonus split.
It is also a reminder of how Incredible Technologies slots tend to reach players. IT is primarily a land-based supplier, so the first route to market is casino floors via operator purchases rather than an overnight online rollout. It is not land-based only, though: the company has licensed online rights to its casino portfolio, including an agreement announced in 2021 giving GAN exclusive U.S. online rights to that content. A planned end-of-year launch still means a gradual appearance, floor by floor, rather than a single launch date you can mark down. If you want to play it, the realistic answer is to watch your local property’s new game sections first, and treat an online version as possible later rather than confirmed, since no online release for this title has been announced.
What to look for when it hits the floor
A short checklist for anyone planning to try the Just Buried slot when it arrives:
- Read the help screens before the first bonus, specifically how the bride and groom bonuses are triggered and whether both are reachable at every bet level.
- Check whether any feature is bet-dependent. Some tiered prize games restrict the top pools at minimum bets, and that detail belongs in the paytable, not in marketing.
- Look for the posted RTP or theoretical return where your jurisdiction requires it on the machine or in the help menu, and remember the house edge is simply the remainder of that figure.
- Watch how the screen signals an upgrade. Clear feedback is the difference between a layered bonus that reads well and one that feels arbitrary.
And the usual, unglamorous point that applies to every new slot release: a bonus structure that can escalate is a design for entertainment, not an earnings plan. Decide what you are willing to spend before you sit down, use the deposit and session limits your operator offers, and stop when that budget is gone. If gambling stops feeling like a game, local support services and self-exclusion tools exist for exactly that reason.
Details above come from Incredible Technologies’ G2E video demo as covered by CDC Gaming. Specifications may change between a trade show demo and the commercial release.
