This harmony between visuals, sound and story was a revelation to Cash and Rosenberg. There’s not much to the game, but the world you inhabit is so vivid and silly you get an immediate sense of place. In the game, the bird scoots along technicolored hills, floating occasionally into a soft puff of clouds.

The game was born of the guys’ love of Tiny Wings, a funny mobile game that features a bird with wings too tiny to fly. “That the game and its characters could be just a small part of a much larger world, with its own history and culture.” “We wanted to try and create a living, breathing environment for Alto to inhabit,” Nesbitt says. As Alto, your shepherd/avatar, shreds the mountain in hot pursuit of his escaping llamas, he navigates a surreal alpine landscape designed by artist Harry Nesbitt.

This iOS game is stupidly addictive, and the best explanation I have is because it’s so damn pretty.ĭevelopers Ryan Cash and Jordan Rosenberg of Snowman are the guys behind Alto’s Adventure, one of the most beautiful mobile games in recent memory. And yet, I find myself coming back again and again. In terms of gameplay, it’s fun but not groundbreaking. Maybe you'll crash into a rock or miss a landing, but no problem you’ll start over again at the top of the never-ending slope.

Alto’s Adventure has a simple premise: Speed down a mountain on your snowboard, pull some tricks, collect some coins, capture a llama or two while you’re at it.

Alto's adventure llama stampede