Hailing from Sweden, the team at development studio Poppermost Productions have been knee-deep over the past few years working on SNOW, an ambitious free-to-play title which will be available on PC and PS4 in 2015.
Based around skiing and snowboarding, SNOW is set in a huge open-world that players can explore and compete in. The concept of SNOW is hugely different to previous winter sports-based games that we’ve seen on console, with a hugely customizable experience, authentic physics and an environment crafted specifically for diversity and fun.
We hooked with Poppermost’s CEO and Game Director Alexander Bergendhal to find out more…
Considering SNOW is such an ambitious game, you guys run a fairly small team in Sweden, right? How long have been working on the game for and what’s your background?
SNOW has been in development for about two and a half years now. The three of us started working from our own bedrooms and now after a successful Early Access launch and some outside investments we’ve been able to grow the team to 11.
The whole team is pretty diverse – most of us have a videogame development background but come from different areas of the industry: small modding projects, indie games like The Ball and full-fledged AAA games like Just Cause 2.
What’s your experience with Winter Sports, are you keen skiers and snowboarders?
Of course – you’ve got to be totally in love with these sports to be able to give so much time to making a game about them! I’m a skier (though I used to snowboard when I was a teenager) and most of the rest of the team skis or snowboards. We all are into action sports in general but we definitely have a soft spot for winter sports.
Can you tell us about what players can do in the game and the type of events they can participate in?
Sure! SNOW is foremost an open-world game, which means that exploration is a huge part of the experience. You can ride wherever you want on the mountain by yourself or with friends and discover many diverse areas. It’s a bit like in real life when we go backcountry skiing, or ride uncharted terrain and discover an incredible new line or spot. This is what we want to recreate in SNOW.
We will also offer more structured content like slopestyle or time trial events. Some events will take part on Sialia, our open-world mountain, while others will have dedicated stand-alone levels. For example, we have the partnered up with some of the major events from the freeski world and will offer the official courses rendered in-game.
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And, will there be customisation options?
Customization is one of the main pillars of SNOW, so we’ve partnered up with more than a dozen of the biggest brands from the industry and recreated their catalogues in our game. You can currently customize your character with over 400 products from brands like K2, Scott, Line, Armada, Red Bull and many more.
But customizing your character isn’t all we have planned. In addition to personal individualism we are offering players a new way to interact with the environment. In SNOW, you will also be able to change and reshape the face of the mountain to your liking by adding jumps, rails, and other props dynamically anywhere on the mountain while you ride.
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There seems to be a huge gap in the market right now for this type of game with the likes of Amped, Shawn White Snowboarding and the SSX games a distant memory. Do you think SNOW offers something different to what we’ve already played?
SNOW is the first game to truly offer players a massive open-world mountain to explore. Other games have attempted this but have never been able to achieve the level of detail (and scale) that we have. What this means for the players is that they are no longer limited to the “race track” courses of other winter sports games but instead have over 280km2 of lush alpine terrain to explore however they want.
We also want to offer a level of authenticity that hasn’t been achieved in previous games. We’ve created a completely dynamic and physics-driven riding experience that truly replicates the feeling of shredding down a mountain. Coupling that with CRYENGINE’s amazing graphics and our massive open world, we have raised the bar for what players should expect from a game in this genre.
Can you tell us a bit about the environment in SNOW? Is it modelled on any particular place, for example?
Sialia is our primary mountain and is completely fictional. That being said, many of its elements have been inspired by real mountains and features that we’ve encountered while riding ourselves. We decided to create something fictional to ensure that every face was hand crafted towards gameplay and we didn’t have to make any compromises. This also gives us the opportunity to surprise the players with unique features that they wouldn’t necessarily encounter on a ski mountain. For example, we have created an old abandoned quarry with steep narrow passages and some interesting and unique jumps.
At the same time, SNOW also offers some real-life stand-alone levels that are exact replicas of some real life events, like the famous Jon Olsson Invitational Big Air jump. The winter sports world creates a huge amount of content throughout the season, so we’ll do our best to keep up with all the new courses that are built and try bring them into the game.
And are there any plans to implement a map editor?
The current plan is to allow the player to place jumps and other props on the mountain while they are riding. And at some point we’d love to offer a snowpark editor, but this is a much more complicated feature so we need to work our way up to it. Eventually we’d love to see players creating levels and sharing them with each other online.
In the videos we’ve watched, the physics, animation and game world look very impressive. What game engine are you using?
We are using CRYENGINE to develop SNOW. Crytek’s engine is one of the most powerful tools available and we obviously needed the power to create such a demanding game.
Does SNOW have a multiplayer component? Will, for example, we see other skiers on the slopes and perhaps be able to challenge them?
SNOW will definitely have a multiplayer component! All the features that users have available to themselves in solo mode will also be available in multiplayer. Players will be able to ride with all of their friends, competing against each other or just exploring the mountain together.
You’ve opted to make SNOW a PS4 exclusive. What was the thinking behind that and how has it been working with Sony’s hardware and Sony?
It was really a no-brainer for us to partner with Sony and exclusively bring SNOW to the PS4. Sony has really hit the nail on the head with the PS4 with the hardware and software, but also with their support of new business models, like free-to-play. They have a dedicated free-to-play team that are supporting us as we bring the game to their platform in 2015.
The free-to-play model seems to a popular choice among developers right now and you’ve confirmed that you’ll be taking this approach with SNOW. We guess that means they’ll be long term support for the game. What plans to do you have for additional content and support during its life-cycle?
As you mentioned, free-to-play games tend to follow a longer life cycle compared to traditional boxed products. Our plans are to add new content on a regular basis. This means we’ll update the catalogue with the latest gear from our partners every season but also add new courses and eventually expand the mountain further. We’ll also continue to update and improve gameplay features to offer a continuously diverse and fun experience.
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Will SNOW include micro-transactions? If so, what type of things will players be able to buy?
Being a free-to-play game, SNOW will have micro-transactions available in several areas. Players will be able to buy clothing and equipment to customize their character, events to challenge and prove themselves in and jumps and props to customize the mountain.
We want SNOW to be a fair and balanced free-to-play experience. What this means is that at no point will the player be ever forced to spend money in the game or be able to buy their way to the top. Our vision of free-to-play is to give players the ability to expand and enhance their game – not use micro-transactions to get ahead.
What have you learned so far from SNOW’s Early Access scheme on PC that you’ll be looking to address for the PS4 version? What’s the most important bit of feedback from players you’ve received?
Releasing SNOW on Steam’s Early Access first has been incredibly helpful and quite an interesting process from a game development point of view. We’ve been able to learn a huge amount about what our community wants from a game like this and have adapted our roadmap to reflect that. Every bit of feedback that the Early Access community has given will be included in the PS4 version of the game. We are extremely grateful for their support.
What can we expect from the audio experience? Will SNOW have a soundtrack?
We’ve put a lot of effort into designing the audio experience for SNOW. To achieve the most realistic soundscape, we sent a dedicated team of sound engineers to a mountain to record all of the sound effects with professional skiers. This of course isn’t unheard of for sport games, but we think it’s quite rare for a small indie team to do something like this.
On top of real sound effects we’ve added an exclusive soundtrack created by a local Stockholm producer Adrian Bood. It’s electronic music, which we think perfectly complements the serene but exciting gameplay experience. You can already listen to some of the songs here.
Do you plan on conducting and alpha and beta phase for PS4 users?
Absolutely, we definitely want to do a beta phase before launching on the PS4. We think that beta testing is an important part in any game’s development. It gives us the chance to test the overall concept in a live setting before launching fully.
What time-frame have you got in mind for launch date? We guess you’ve got to deal with the PC launch first?
Ideally we would like to launch on both platforms, PC and PS4, at the same time. It’s still a bit early to commit to any launch dates but we hope to come back from the holiday season with some exciting news, so stay tuned!