Three studios, five games
Who builds the pickaxe slots
Three studios share the format, and each one signed a different kind of deal. Paperclip Gaming works with Stake alone and keeps both parts of Mine Drop there. InOut Games ship their catalogue to hundreds of operators, and both parts of Mine Slot travel with it. Pixmove arrived last and turned the format into an instant game. Every difference in availability follows from that.
Paperclip Gaming: one operator, whole catalogue
The studio started in 2025 and has built exclusively for Stake on its Stake Engine from day one. This is not one game under contract, it is how the business is arranged: the entire catalogue belongs to a single operator.
Its first year produced Deadspin Bonanza, Scroll Keeper, Pinball Peak, Candy Party, Crown Conquest, Forged in Fire, Borrowed Time, Penguins Can Fly, Round Robin, Maze Quest and a dozen others. Mine Drop arrived on 8 September 2025 and became the most visible of them.
What that gives a player: full statistics on every game page. Stake publishes turnover, bet count and observed return over a day, a week, a month and the game lifetime. No third-party catalogue offers data like that.
What it takes away: choice. If you want Mine Drop, you go to Stake, and there is no alternative.
InOut Games: crash first, slots later
InOut Games are known for crash and instant-win formats. Their Chicken Road is familiar to anyone who has opened the mini-games section of a casino lobby.
Mine Slot took the studio somewhere else. The game is labelled a slot even though its reels pay no lines, and catalogues file it under other game types, which is honest enough.
Distribution is wide. Vavada carries a Mine Slot page, Parimatch carries Mine Slot 2, and that is far from the full list: InOut titles sit at 1xSlots and dozens of other operators.
What it takes away: transparency. The studio publishes no maximum win for Mine Slot at all, and no volatility figure for either game. Those catalogue fields sit empty.
Pixmove: the third studio, arriving from outside
Pixmove came to the format last, in June 2026, and did not copy anyone's mechanic. Falling Pickaxe is filed as an instant game: one reel instead of five, one pickaxe instead of five, a shaft instead of a field with chests.
The catalogue behind it is broad and mixed: fifty games released, nine years in the industry, slots and instant titles side by side. Almost everything in it is set to 95% RTP, and Falling Pickaxe shares that figure, which makes it the lowest in the pickaxe family.
What it gives the player: reach. Pixmove ship through aggregators and sit at dozens of operators, from Stake to 1win.
What it takes away: the size of a win. The ceiling on Falling Pickaxe is 160x where Paperclip Gaming's sequel reaches 50,000x. The studio chose frequent small payouts, and the low volatility is its own declaration.
How the studio difference shows up in the games
| Parameter | Mine Drop | Mine Slot | Mine Slot 2 | Falling Pickaxe | Mine Drop 2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Developer | Paperclip Gaming | InOut Games | InOut Games | Pixmove | Paperclip Gaming |
| Released | 8 September 2025 | 24 December 2025 | 11 March 2026 | June 2026 | 28 July 2026 |
| Category | slot | slot | slot | instant game | slot |
| RTP | 96% | 96% | 96% | 95% | 96.70% |
| Max win | 5,000x | not published | 1,000x | 160x | 50,000x |
| Volatility | medium-high | not published | not published | low | high, with a switch |
| Mine grid | 5x6 | 5x7 | 5x7 | - | - |
| Block types | 6 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
| Pickaxe tiers | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 |
| Free spins | 4 | 4 | 3, 4 or 5 | - | 4 |
| Bonus tiers | 1 | 1 | 1 | - | 3 |
| Buy options | 2 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 7 |
| Where to play | Stake | 1xSlots | Vavada | Sneket | Stake |
Both InOut titles hold 96% RTP and stay inside what the original invented. Both Paperclip titles push the format: in the sequel the studio raised RTP to 96.70% and added two block types, a fifth pickaxe tier and seven buy options in place of two.
The reason is probably structural. A studio serving one operator competes for attention inside that operator catalogue and has to make each game louder. A studio shipping everywhere earns on reach instead.
A neighbour that is not part of the family
Pickaxe Drop by the studio Kouple shipped on 5 September 2025, three days before Mine Drop, and also on Stake alone. The theme matches: pickaxes, pixel art, a mine. The mechanic does not, because it is a crash game where a multiplier climbs and you have to take it in time. RTP 96%, ceiling 10,000x, no chests and no bonus features.
The two are easy to confuse, so keep one test in mind. If a field of blocks with durability sits under the reels, it belongs to the Mine Drop family. If a multiplier climbs on screen and you have to press a button at the right moment, it is a different game entirely.
Common questions about the developers
Who are Paperclip Gaming
A studio that has been building games exclusively for Stake on its Stake Engine since 2025. Besides Mine Drop and Mine Drop 2 it has shipped Deadspin Bonanza, Scroll Keeper, Pinball Peak, Penguins Can Fly, Round Robin, Maze Quest and a dozen more.
Who are InOut Games
A developer of crash and instant-win formats, best known for Chicken Road. Mine Slot and Mine Slot 2 were their move into a format that is formally labelled a slot.
Why are some games everywhere and others in one place
It comes down to the studio contract. Paperclip Gaming works exclusively with Stake, so its games physically appear nowhere else. InOut Games ship their catalogue to anyone, which puts their titles at Vavada, 1xSlots, Parimatch and dozens more.
What is the Stake Engine
Stake own game server, on which its exclusive studios build. It processes rounds, settles results and lets the operator change game parameters without reissuing anything.
Who are Pixmove
A studio with nine years in the industry and fifty released games, from slots to instant titles. It entered the pickaxe family in June 2026 with Falling Pickaxe, the only game of the format its own developer declines to call a slot.
Which studio makes the better game
On published figures Paperclip Gaming leads: Mine Drop 2 carries 96.70% RTP and a 50,000x ceiling. Both InOut Games titles hold 96% and either declare 1,000x or publish no maximum at all, while Pixmove declares 95% and 160x. Games from InOut and Pixmove are far easier to reach, though.