So what exactly is Just Buried?
Incredible Technologies brought exactly one unreleased game to G2E this year, and it was this one. Just Buried pairs a zombie honeymoon theme with a stack of interlocking bonus rounds, and the Just Buried slot bonus features are the whole point of the design: tiered prizes, upgrade scatters that push players into higher prize pools, separate bonuses for the bride and the groom, and free spins that can retrigger.
The game surfaced in a walkthrough recorded by CDC Gaming with Kelsey Reish, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Incredible Technologies, who ran through the bonus structure on camera. The casino floor launch is planned for the end of the year.
A zombie wedding theme is a hook. The mechanics underneath are the actual story, because this is a clean example of how modern slot bonus rounds get built in layers rather than as one single event.
What does “layered bonuses” actually mean?
A layered bonus is a feature that can change state while it’s running. Instead of one fixed outcome, you enter a bonus, and then a second mechanic inside that bonus can move you somewhere better: a higher prize tier, a bigger multiplier, more spins.
Compare the two approaches:
- Flat bonus: three scatters land, you get ten free spins with a 2× multiplier, you play them out, the round ends. The distribution of results is fairly narrow.
- Layered bonus: you enter the round at a base tier, and events during the round upgrade the tier, lift the multiplier, or extend the round. Most entries end near the bottom. A small share climb a long way.
Both can be built to the same theoretical return. What changes is the shape of the outcomes, which is the difference between a game that drips and a game that lurches. Just Buried sits firmly in the second camp.
How do the Bride and Groom bonuses differ?
The zombie newlyweds each get their own bonus experience, with different features built around each character. That’s a design choice worth understanding, because it does two things at once.
First, it gives the math team two separate envelopes to work with. A designer can make one character’s round frequent and modest and the other rarer and more extreme, then blend them into a single theoretical return for the game. Second, it gives the player something to hope for at the trigger moment. Which bonus you land becomes its own small event, before the round has even started.
From a practical standpoint, treat the two bonuses as two different games sharing a cabinet. If you only ever see one of them in a short session, you have not seen what the game does.
What do the upgrade scatters change?
This is the part doing the heavy lifting. In the demo, upgrade scatters can move players into higher prize pools and increase multipliers as the bonus unfolds. So the bonus you start is not necessarily the bonus you finish.
Mechanically, that means your position inside the round is a moving target. Land nothing extra and you collect from the tier you entered on. Land upgrades and both the pool you’re drawing from and the multiplier applied can step up. Stack enough of them and the same trigger that usually produces a small result produces a very different one.
Here’s how the pieces fit together:
| Layer | What it does | Effect on the round |
|---|---|---|
| Bride / Groom bonuses | Routes you into one of two character-specific rounds | Two different outcome profiles from one trigger |
| Tiered prizes | Sets the pool of prize values in play | Establishes your starting ceiling |
| Upgrade scatters | Move you to a higher prize pool and raise multipliers | Raises the ceiling mid-round |
| Retriggering free spins | Extends the round with additional spins | More chances to collect and to upgrade further |
Why do retriggering free spins matter so much?
Retriggers are the multiplier on the multiplier. On their own, extra spins are just extra chances to win. Combined with an upgrade system, they’re extra chances to climb, and anything already banked carries forward at the improved level.
That combination is where the long tail of a game like this lives. The overwhelming majority of bonus entries will finish somewhere ordinary. A thin slice of them chain upgrades with retriggers and land far out on the distribution. Slot designers build this deliberately, because a visible, reachable ceiling is what keeps a floor game interesting.
Do layered bonuses make a slot better or just swingier?
Swingier, mostly, and that’s a neutral statement rather than a compliment or a complaint.
Two things are worth being blunt about. First, bonus features are already priced into a game’s RTP. The upgrade scatters and retriggers are not bolted on top of the return, they are part of how the return gets paid out. A game with a dramatic bonus and a game with a quiet one can land on the same theoretical percentage. Second, volatility and RTP are separate dials. Layering raises variance, meaning longer stretches of nothing punctuated by bigger results, without changing the long-run figure.
And the long-run figure is still below 100%. Every slot carries a house edge equal to 100% minus its RTP, and no feature structure, bonus-buy style mechanic, or bet pattern changes that. Each spin is an independent RNG outcome. A cabinet that has gone cold is not “due”, and one that just paid is not finished.
What layered design genuinely offers the player is clarity about what you’re signing up for. If you want steady, frequent small wins, a high-variance bonus ladder is the wrong fit for your bankroll. If you accept long dry spells as the price of a shot at the top tier, it’s the right one. Know which you are before you sit down.
Where does this sit among Incredible Technologies slots?
Incredible Technologies is an unusual supplier in that it built its name in arcades before casinos, which is why its slot output often leans into character and comedy rather than pure spectacle. Just Buried fits that pattern: the zombie honeymoon premise is doing marketing work, giving the two bonus paths a reason to exist as a bride and a groom rather than as Bonus A and Bonus B.
That matters more than it sounds. Themed slot mechanics work best when the story explains the math. A player does not need to be told there are two separate bonus envelopes with different variance profiles. They need to understand that the bride’s round and the groom’s round do different things, and a wedding theme communicates that in a second.
The fact that Just Buried was the only unreleased title Incredible Technologies showed at G2E is also a signal about where the company is placing its bet for the end-of-year floor rollout. Suppliers do not spend their one reveal slot on a game they expect to go quietly.
What to check when it hits the floor
When any new slot release with a layered bonus shows up, the help screens tell you more in two minutes than a demo video does. Look for the number of prize tiers and what separates them, how upgrades are triggered and whether they persist across retriggers, whether the two character bonuses are equally likely, and the posted RTP range for that specific placement, since the same game title can be configured differently from one floor to another.
Then set your own limits before the first spin. Decide a session budget and a stop point, use the deposit and session tools available to you, and treat a high-variance bonus ladder as entertainment you are paying for, not as a way to make money. If the play stops feeling like a choice, cool-off and self-exclusion tools exist for exactly that reason.