Posts tagged App Store

I can’t believe how fast time flies.

Five years ago I woke up at 4am after sleeping for a few hours. Before I passed out I hit the “Release This Version” button to release Alto’s Adventure into the wild.

When I woke up I was in shock as there were over 500 new tweets for “Alto’s Adventure” on Twitter – and we hadn’t even announced the game was out yet! This wasn’t our first app launch either (it was #6), and normally things were quiet until after we announced the launch. This was different, and it certainly felt so.

If you’re curious to read more about the journey behind making the game, you can check out this post I wrote a few years back, or read Harry’s in-depth story here.

Fast forward five years and here we are today, launching Alto’s Odyssey on the Mac, a new line of merch, and of course having a sale to celebrate. I can’t believe how many things have happened and how drastically my life has changed since the launch of Alto, and I’ll be forever grateful for it.

It still feels quite early here and we’re working on some really exciting things at Snowman that we can’t wait to share with the world. Here’s to the next five years.

I still remember the day that Apple announced the very first iPhone. It feels like just yesterday. Every time I hear the song “Perfect Timing (This Morning)” by Orba Squara, I get goosebumps.

Those original iPhone ads were just so damn good.

I was working at Marketcircle, a company that, at the time, was making business software for (just) the Mac. The entire company was excited when Steve Jobs revealed this magic and revolutionary new device, and ideas for what we could do with this device were already flowing around the office. For the first while there wasn’t an App Store, but I think we all thought – or at least hoped – that one was coming.

We were able to be part of the App Store right from the get-go, and it was an incredible time to be working in the industry. I feel extremely lucky that the timing worked out that way. I spent five years working at Marketcircle honing my skills and learning the industry, but in 2012 it was time to set out on my own journey.

When I left Marketcircle I referenced Steve Jobs’ famous quote from his 2005 Stanford Commencement speech in my goodbye post:

You can’t connect the dots looking forward you can only connect them looking backwards.

This is one of those quotes that continues to hit home for me, as things in our industry continue to grow and change.

When I left the company I had no idea we’d be making games – I literally didn’t have a plan past Checkmark. And here we are today, coming off the high of winning an Apple Design Award, eager to see what’s next, and excited to be celebrating this incredible 10-year milestone.

The App Store has changed the world so drastically it’s hard to even imagine sometimes. In some ways, the world feels kind of the same as it did 10 years ago. But only for a second. In almost every single way, with almost every single thing we do, the iPhone and the App Store have changed how we live as humans. It’s changed how we communicate, how we share, and how we express ourselves artistically. It’s changed how we travel, do business, and how we eat. It’s made us healthier, wiser, and a little goofier. It truly kickstarted a massive global revolution that, while even 10 years in, feels like just the beginning.

This is all true on a personal level for me, but it’s also changed the course of my career. I say this quite honestly: I have no idea what I would be doing if it weren’t for the iPhone and the App Store. I don’t think there’s anything I’d rather be doing, and can’t think of any other invention or platform that’d let me do what I love doing most: creating things.

If you haven’t yet read Apple’s story about the anniversary I highly encourage you to do so. It’s really great.

I also recently went back to watch Steve introducing the App Store. It’s funny how much we take the store itself for granted, but it was such an important spark in this monumental change we’ve undergone as a civilization these last ten years.

The App Store has truly changed my life, and continues to do so every day. I couldn’t be more grateful to be part of this and I’m so lucky that I was in the right place at the right time, and had the privilege of being in a position to take the risk to go out on my own.

And so, to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of the App Store, we’re putting Alto’s Adventure on sale for 60% off. You can download it on the App Store here.

Almost 3 years ago to this day we launched Alto’s Adventure, and today, Alto embarks on his next journey.

Download Alto’s Odyssey on the App Store, for iPhone, iPad and Apple TV.

I rarely write reviews of things, but in the midst of us prepping for our launch next week, I thought I’d share a short one.

Gorogoa is one of those games that (as Eli always says), you sit with for a short while, but it sits with you for a long time. 

I remember hearing things about the game here and there on Twitter. I’d clicked through a couple times, but for some reason I wasn’t super intrigued. The main thing that had me interested in it was the fact that several of my dev friends had been talking about, and that meant it was worth paying attention to. Oh, and it was being published by Annapurna Interactive, who’d published my favourite game of the year so far, What Remains of Edith Finch.

In any case, I often find myself downloading games that I want to play, but never quite getting around to them. Or at least not for a long time. I hadn’t read too much about the game, but it was something that I wouldn’t inherently think I’d be interested in at first glance – which in some ways, made me all the more curious to play it as I started seeing people talk about it.

I actually downloaded and played the game the day it launched. What a masterpiece. It’s the kind of game that makes you think “How is this possible?”, “How could somebody make this?”. When you find out how long it took to make that answers part of it, but really, time doesn’t make magic happen.

I won’t actually talk much about the game, because it’s just the sort of thing you need to play. Trust me. Just play it. The game makes you feel smart, and it makes you think. It’s relaxing in a way, too. The game is available on Steam and Nintendo Switch too, but I’d definitely recommend playing it on iPad.

I had the pleasure of having lunch with Jason, the creator, in San Francisco back in January, and he’s such an incredible guy. It was only a brief meeting, but I could tell he’s the kind of person who dreams up big ideas, and has to see them through his own way. No shortcuts for him. 

I can’t wait to see what Jason creates next.

The wait is almost over. Alto’s Odyssey launches on the App Store next week on Thursday, February 22nd. The game will be available on iOS + tvOS, right at launch.

Apple’s written up a Today story on the App Store previewing the game. You can check out the story here.

You can also pre-order the game, right on the App Store.

Without further ado, here’s the final launch trailer:

Music from the trailer has been licensed from the incredibly-talented Kishi Bash. The particular song we’ve licensed is called “In Fantasia”, but I highly recommend checking out his other work. I had the pleasure of seeing him perform live a few months ago at the Troubador in LA and he was incredible.

I haven’t spent too much time with Super Mario Run just yet, but I do have some initial impressions to share (although I was hesitant).

*For what it’s worth, I’ve made it to World 3*

First things first. I wish you could jump into the game a little faster. It took me a couple minutes to setup a new Nintendo account, and I thought the onboarding experience could be a little better. Because it’s Nintendo I gave them a pass, but if it was anyone else (and it was a free download), I would have likely quitted the app and deleted it.

I absolutely love the sound effects and the nostalgia it stirs up! Super Mario was literally the first video game I ever played, but I’m not in love with the gameplay so far.

Another major issue for me is that it feels like there’s a complex freemium-style system in the way – a system that I want nothing to do with. I just want to play Super Mario. In contrast, I was just at Get Well in Toronto (a cool bar that has classic arcade games to enjoy over beer), and played the original Super Mario. What a simple, yet brilliant game. Super Mario Run feels overly complex, and full of on-screen UI and a lot of text. I do realize it’s 2016, and a lot of things have changed (same goes for Nintendo’s console games), but, I miss the simplicity of yesteryear. 

On a positive note, I think there’s some really clever level design in the game. It’s really cool that you can move leftwards, even though it’s a typically left-to-right “runner”. I kind of wish the game didn’t make those tiny jumps for you, but maybe I haven’t spent enough time with it to fully appreciate why they’re doing that. One thing for sure though: it totally changes the way goombas impact the game.

While playing Super Mario Run I couldn’t help but find myself asking: “Would I like this game if it was a totally new IP, with zero history and nostalgia?”. I don’t know the answer to this yet, but the game is causing me to ask that question.

Overall I’m really glad to see Nintendo developing for mobile, and it’s great to see Super Mario on my Home screen. But I have to admit – playing Super Mario on my jailbroken original iPhone was so much more fun (it was jailbroken because there was no other way to use a first generation iPhone in Canada).

We’re absolutely thrilled to see Alto’s Adventure up on the wall in Apple Stores around the world. 

Snapped these photos in Yorkdale Shopping Centre a few days ago:

Wow. I can’t believe it’s already been a year. It’s gone by so fast. Such a whirlwind. It’s definitely been the craziest year of my life.

Aside from launching Alto’s Adventure, I’ve been all around the world this year (to over 15 countries) – some for pleasure, but a lot of it for work. I’m currently writing this from sunny Australia – but my favourite place I’ve been to has to be Iceland. I can’t recommend it enough. Hit me up on Twitter if you need any Iceland travel tips!

(if you’d like to see more photos, check out my Iceland album on Flickr)

I also did my first-ever game conference talk at Nordic Game in Malmö, Sweden, back in May last year. It was such a wonderful experience talking to a bunch of fellow game-makers, and a chance to grow personally. Met a lot of cool people there, and learned a lot.

It was also my first time at GDC, which was absolutely incredible. I met a ton of great people while I was there. One of them was Sam Rosenthal – and little did I know we’d end up working together! I’m really excited to be going back again this year – see you all there in a few weeks!

Okay, so back to Alto’s Adventure.

We launched the game in the App Store on Thursday, February 19th, 2015 – a day that I’ll never forget. Before we even “officially” announced that the game was out, there were already over 500+ tweets about the game showing up on Twitter. There were already articles posted on websites around the world in many different languages.

I knew it was going to be pretty big – but I couldn’t have foreseen just how big it became.

We went on to receive much acclaim, receiving high praise from almost every major media outlet around the world. Apple went on to name it one of the App Store’s “Best of 2015″ on iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV. We were featured in a few of Apple’s ad campaigns, and on iOS devices worldwide. I won’t go on about this too much, since we have already, but we’re constantly surprised and delighted by all of the great things everyone’s been saying about it.

In case you missed them, Harry wrote a blog post about “The Making of Alto’s Adventure” on his personal blog, and I wrote about “The Story Behind Alto’s Adventure” on my own blog, in case you’re interested in reading about that sort of stuff.

We launched Alto’s Adventure for Apple TV back in October, and just about a week ago we launched on Android and Kindle Fire. So far things are going really well!

Above all, we’d like to thank you all for playing the game. And telling your friends about. And continuing to play the game. Seriously, you guys are everything to us, so thanks SO much.

2016

We have a lot of really exciting things in the works this year, including our collaboration with The Game Band. Stay tuned, as we’ll have some news for you guys soon :)

There are a few other really exciting things that we’re working on as well, but it’s a little too early to say anything about them.

Here’s to another year!

Ryan

Alto’s Adventure is 66% off for a limited time, as part of the App Store’s Handpicked Apps & Games promotion! 

With 2015 coming to an end, we’ve received quite a few awesome awards and mentions in the last couple of weeks:

• TIME Magazine called us one of the “Best Looking Video Games of 2015″
  
• Red Bull nominated us for “Best Mobile Game of 2015″
• The New York Times called Alto’s Adventure one of their “Favorite Apps of 2015″
• We’re one of Kill Screen’s “Best Videogames of 2015″
  
• iMore awarded us “iPhone Game of the Year”
• We’re the “Game of the Year” on Product Hunt
• Nominated as one of GameSpot’s “Best Mobile Games of 2015″
• We were a Canadian Video Game Awards Finalist in 3 categories
• We were also a Unity Awards Finalist for Best 2D Visuals

And last but not least, Apple featured Alto’s Adventure as one of the App Store’s “Best of 2015″ on iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV.

It’s been an incredible year for me, both personally and professionally. I can’t wait to see what 2016 has in store!

Happy Holidays!

When Apple rolled out its “15 Most Beautiful Games” in the App Store last Thursday I immediately tapped on the tile to check out the list. 

I really didn’t expect to see Alto’s Adventure on this list, but to my surprise and delight, we made it. 

Apple has worded the feature:

When ranking their favourites, most gamers will tell you that gameplay is king, but graphics will be second on their list (if it isn’t secretly first). After countless hours of impassioned debate, our editors whittled down this list of the App Store’s most gorgeous games to these 15 stunners. And you don’t have to take our word for it – simply watch a video preview of each game and witness their beauty for yourself.

It’s a huge honour to be included in this list, and we couldn’t have done it without the incredible Harry Nesbitt. 

Be sure to check out some of the other titles in the list. BADLAND and LIMBO are a couple of my personal favourites, and of course, Monument Valley. I’ve only played the first little bit of Leo’s Fortune so far, but it’s shaping up to be pretty awesome too!

We put Alto’s Adventure on sale for 50% off this past Thursday to coincide with Apple’s “Amazing Apps & Games” promotion in the App Store.

The promotion has been incredibly successful for us. We’ve reached the top 10 in the Top Paid charts all around the world, and have even managed to hit #1 in the US (something I’ve always wanted to cross off my bucket list).

We also just hit the 200,000 view mark for our trailer. You can watch it on YouTube here if you haven’t seen it yet.

If you haven’t already purchased the game, you can download it on the App Store for 50% off here.

Here’s what the featuring looks like:

And after tapping on the banner:

#1 in the US! 

(A quick thanks to Michael Simmons for the mobile US App Store screenshot)

On Thursday we launched our second productivity app, Shifts for iPhone.

You can download Shifts on the App Store here.

I wrote about why we decided to build this app on the Snowman blog last week:

The idea for shifts came to us when a few of our close friends started complaining about their current solutions. They knew we made iPhone apps, so they asked us if we could build a better solution. At first it wasn’t all that exciting to us, but after doing some research and talking to more people, we learned that (according to a recent study), one in five employees in the U.S. works during the evening, at night, or on rotating shifts. Some studies say it might be as high as 30% of people in North America. I’m sure that data is similar in other areas of the world too. 

So far things have been going pretty well. We’re currently ranked #1 in Canada in the Productivity section. Hopefully we can maintain that position for some time, and hopefully bounce back up there with new feature updates, etc.

If you’re using Shifts and have any feedback, we’d love to hear it. You can email me directly with any thoughts – good or bad.

Pretty cool to see two of our apps featured in the App Store at the same time: