With a refreshing take on the endless runner genre, Alto’s Adventure[1] proved that well-made premium mobile games can succeed in a marketplace that's dominated by freemium. Alto’s Adventure is an endless snowboarding game where you could land crazy trick combos[2] while admiring the beautiful scenery and relaxing music. Team Alto, a collaboration between Snowman studio and Harry Nesbitt (Lead Artist and Programmer), has been hard at work on the sequel, which it views as a continuation of Alto’s journey. That game is Alto’s Odyssey.
Making a sequel is never easy, especially so if the sequel has to better a game as good as Alto’s Adventure[3]. Team Alto was always aware of the challenge when it started making Alto’s Odyssey and the end result reflects that. Alto’s Odyssey uses similar gameplay mechanics to make players of the first game feel right at home, while still keeping them engaged via new locales, tricks, and lots of new environmental elements. At its heart is the story of Alto’s Odyssey, and Gadgets 360 spoke to key personnel behind the game over email to get a sense of the everything that went into making the game.
Ryan Cash, the founder of Snowman, says that the vision for a sequel existed before the first game was launched. “From my personal perspective, I had always wanted Alto’s Adventure to be the beginning of a story for our cast of characters that we could tell over many years,” he says. "As part of this, I’ve had my own ideas about where we might take these characters next for a long time. Even before the launch of Alto’s Adventure!”
The game's actual development cycle was heavily influenced by what was happening in...