For those who love to get hands-on with mobile games, we bet you will love our featured app for this week.
We will take a quick peek into the video game, Alto’s Odyssey. The game is a follow-up on Alto’s Adventure which the first release was only available on iOS.
For those unfamiliar with the mobile game, Alto’s Adventure mirrors the atmosphere of snowboarding. The player taps on the screen to navigate Alto through various elements while also completing goals and collecting rewards. It also includes stunning visuals that act as a calming force within a fast-paced game.
With Alto’s Odyssey, lead artist and developer Harry Nesbitt and the team at Snowman — who refer to the collaboration as “Team Alto” — wanted to appeal to its existing fans as well as those who have yet to play the game. It was decided that mechanically, the game wouldn’t involve having to adjust to new control schemes. The ability to play comfortably one-handed was an important aspect of the game to adopt from its predecessor — making it more approachable and less complex for all types of players.
Incorporating a calming nature into the gameplay, meant there was room to push boundaries elsewhere — specifically with Alto. In Alto’s Adventure, there was a cozy feel to it as users explored his home mountain — careening down hills amidst the forests with its lantern lit homes and villages, all blanketed with snow. This time around, it was important to create a new space filled with variety, which meant branching into territory that was uncharted — and creating multiple versions of a particular setting.
“We want every time you pick up the game to feel fresh and to feel like you’re experiencing a slightly different part of the world that you maybe played last time,” lead artist and developer, Harry Nesbitt told us.
Pricing
Both Alto’s Adventure and Alto’s Odyssey debuted as paid apps in the iTunes App Store, but when Snowman partnered with Noodlecake Studios to bring Alto’s Adventure to Android, they opted for a free-to-play model that included video ads to revive Alto and in-app purchases for premium upgrades. It was an experiment of sorts that offered a great game for free to Android users with minimal ads — and tens of millions of downloads from the Google Play Store.
That’s the same model being used with Alto’s Odyssey as well — the game itself is free to play, but you’ll have ads to contend with.
Alto’s Odyssey is available for download on both the Google Playstore and the iTunes App Store.
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