After playing it for the past few weeks, I recommend wearing headphones to get the full experience. But the music adds another dimension to gameplay. The visuals in Alto are gorgeous, especially the dynamic weather elements. I felt we could still be lighthearted, but perhaps approach it a little more tastefully and hopefully speak to a wider audience in the process.” “I know there’s a huge market for it, and it can be done really well, but it’s just not my cup of tea. “A lot of mobile games seem to equate being casual or lighthearted with this kind of bright cartoon-ish style that doesn’t appeal to me personally,” he said.

Nesbitt wanted a distinct visual look that would set Alto’s Adventure apart. “I’m not a snowboarder myself, so I think I was able to come at it from a slightly different angle.” “Considering how personal the idea was to Ryan and Jordan, the fact that they wanted to give me full creative control was incredible,” said Nesbitt, who recently designed the logo for Realmac Software. He caught Cash’s eye with some amazing Breaking Bad art on Dribble.Īt that point Cash knew Nesbitt had “the kind of artistic style we have in mind.” He and Rosenberg wanted “something unlike the typical cartoony App Store games.” Some of the art that inspired Alto’s visual aesthetic.ĭrawing from games like Tiny Wings, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, Amped, and movies like The Art of Flight and Into the Wild, the team set out to design an endless runner.

While Nesbitt had never made a game before, he has a strong background in illustration, design and web development. After making the simple, 80s-style game Circles together, they decided to try combining “a real-life passion with our passion to build apps.”Īfter some rough sketches, they added a lead designer from England to the project named Harry Nesbitt. They both loved the art and sound design in Tiny Wings. “We often wondered why there weren’t really any snowboarding games in the App Store that had done well.” “Jordan was obsessed with Tiny Wings, and kind of got me into mobile gaming” explained Cash in an interview with Cult of Mac. Based in Toronto, Canada, Cash is one half of the indie app studio Snowman behind productivity apps like Checkmark and Shifts.Ĭash and his co-founder Jordan Rosenberg have been friends for over 20 years, and growing up they used to hit the Canadian slopes and snowboard together.

Alto's adventure unlock characters