Alto's Adventure

Snowman, a Toronto-based, three-person indie development team, previously worked on productivity apps before Alto's Adventure. The game was made to emulate the ethereal atmosphere of snowboarding, and was inspired by Ski Safari (2012), Tiny Wings (2012), Jetpack Joyride (2011), Journey (2012), Monument Valley (2014), Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 (2000), and Windosill (2009). The game was released on February 19, 2015, initially for iOS devices. In September that year, Snowman announced that Alto's Adventure would launch on Android and Kindle Fire. The game was released for Android on February 11, 2016. On July 8, 2016, the game was released for the Windows platform. According to review score aggregator Metacritic, the game received universal acclaim from critics. Reviewers praised its art style and sense of atmosphere but criticized its gameplay for too little originality. Pocket Gamer awarded the game their Gold Award. A sequel, Alto's Odyssey, was released in 2018.

• Title — Alto's Adventure • Developer — Team Alto • Publisher — Noodlecake Studios (Android), Snowman (iOS) • Engine — Unity • Platforms — * iOS • tvOS • Android • Android TV • Kindle Fire • Linux • Microsoft Windows • macOS • PlayStation 4 • Xbox One • Nintendo Switch • Genre — Endless runner, snowboarding • Modes — Single-player • Director — Ryan Cash • Producer — Jordan Rosenberg • Programmer — Harry Nesbitt • Artist — Harry Nesbitt

• Illustration — Gameplay trailer Alto's Adventure is a side-scrolling endless runner snowboarding game. The player character moves automatically through procedurally generated landscapes towards the right side of the screen and the player can only control when to jump. The player taps the screen once to jump and holds the screen while the player character is midair to perform tricks. While the character moves across the landscape, the player can complete some of the game's 180 goals, though they are given only three at a time. Goals include such things as traveling a set distance, rescuing runaway llamas, crossing dangerous gaps, grinding across rooftops of villages, and outsmarting the mountain elders. The player receives awards from completing goals, and can also collect coins that can be used to purchase upgrades. Players perform tricks in quick succession, or combos, to earn points towards a competitive high score. The game also tracks distance traveled and trick combos. Later in the game, players can use a wingsuit, which changes some elements of the game. The environments of Alto's Adventure change in lighting as time passes through the cycle of the day, and incorporate various weather effects. Player progress syncs between iPads and iPhones over iCloud, and the game uses Game Center leaderboards.

• Illustration — Harry Nesbitt (left) and Snowman at GDC 2015 Alto's Adventure was built in collaboration between Snowman, an indie development studio based in Toronto, and lead artist and programmer Harry Nesbitt, based in Devon, England, a collaboration known as Team Alto. Nesbitt has since gone on to found the studio Land & Sea to encompass a growing team of developers that continue to support the game and its sequel. The developers intended the game to "capture the flow and feeling of snowboarding" and the way "everything else sort of just disappears" when "in rhythm with the mountain", unlike other snowboarding games. Team Alto also sought to address how other mobile games emphasize video game console-type elements with on-screen controls, which Snowman's co-founder Ryan Cash felt were largely not designed with the mobile platform in mind. • Illustration — Alto's Adventure was inspired, in part, by Windosill (pictured). Alto's Adventure was inspired by Journey (2012), Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 (2000), and Windosill (2009). Snowman's co-founders, Ryan Cash and Jordan Rosenberg, wanted to bring the essence of the Tony Hawk games of their youth into Alto's Adventure, including "fun, positive goals" and an "easy to learn, hard to master" trick system. They avoided goals from other endless runners that they considered negative, uninteresting, or repetitive. As inspired by Monument Valley (2014), the developers chose to charge above average for the game as a trade-off for not including offsets like in-game advertisements or in-app purchases. Team Alto has said any new content would be as an expansion along the lines of Monument Valley "Forgotten Shores". The game was released for iOS on February 19, 2015. A port for Android and Kindle Fire was announced in September later that year. The app was released for those platforms on February 11, 2016. Team Alto collaborated with Noodlecake Studios to make the Android port. Additionally, unlike the iOS version, which is launched as a "premium app" (which requires the user to pay $2.99 to download), the Android version is free to download. In an interview with The Verge, Ryan Cash of Snowman explained that their decision to make the Android Alto's Adventure free is due to iOS and Android being on a "completely different ecosystem", and mainly because of the bigger piracy issues on Android apps. Additionally, he said that those using the Android port will have the same experience as those playing Alto's in the iOS. • Illustration — Logo of the game as seen on promo trailer On August 4, 2019, Team Alto announced that Alto's Adventure, alongside its sequel Alto's Odyssey, would be released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on August 13, 2020, as part of The Alto Collection. A Nintendo Switch version was released on November 26, 2020. On March 25, 2022, Team Alto released an expansion for Apple Arcade titled Alto's Adventure: Spirit Of The Mountain. This version included the base game, plus new goals, abilities, and a new character named Pitu.

A sequel, Alto's Odyssey, was released for iOS in February 2018 and Android in July 2018. It keeps the same gameplay as the original, this time set in a desert with three biomes.