How does Game DNA work?
Every game in the engine.io catalogue is compared with every other studio's games, automatically and around the clock. Each comparison weighs several independent kinds of evidence from a game's math, its game client and how its rounds play out, and a match is only shown once the evidence rules out coincidence. Overlaps that come down to ordinary slot conventions or engine.io's shared tooling are left out.
What does “Identical math” mean?
Both games run the same math: the same results, weighted the same way, so they pay out identically. Games built independently never end up with the same math, so it came from the same place. “Same books” means the same results at a different RTP.
How do you know which game is the original?
We know when each game was created on engine.io, when it first went live on Stake.com or Stake.us and when its art was published. In each DNA family, the game that provably existed first is the original. Other studios' games in the family are listed as matches; a studio's own later games are listed as reskins when they're built on its earlier game's math, and as same studio otherwise, since studios reuse their own work all the time. A game created after the game it matches went live could have been built from the live game; one created before it was live couldn't, so it's listed as a shared source — shared code, licensed math or one owner's two accounts. When five or more studios share the same math, the family is shown as a shared math pack: its first game is only the earliest, not the source.
What is a reskin?
A game built on the math of one of its own studio's earlier games — the same results, weighted the same way or at a different RTP — across most of its modes or its base game, usually with new art and a new theme. Reskins are listed per studio, separately from matches with other studios' games, each under the studio's game that existed first.
What does a match mean?
That two games share math, code or design — not how they came to share it. Studios license math from the same vendor, build on the same template, or publish under more than one account. Every match lists its evidence and both games' dates so you can judge for yourself.
Which games are checked?
All of them, automatically. The catalogue is re-checked every few minutes, so new releases are compared shortly after they're published, and closer comparisons of look-alike games run continuously in the background.