Climb every mountain

How a whimsical encounter led to a fruitful creative partnership – and the physics-based action adventure, Surmount

In the midst of the global pandemic in 2020, Animal Crossing: New Horizons provided a cosy escape route for many. But as well as a distraction from the isolation and stress of lockdown, Nintendo’s life sim also helped bring together Jasper Oprel and Indiana-Jonas Sundberg, the creators of Surmount. “We met over Animal Crossing just as the pandemic was getting started,” says Oprel, the game’s programmer and co-designer. “And through a mutual friend, we started visiting each other’s towns and started talking from there.” At the time, Sundberg had a prototype for a climbing game intended for mobile devices; taking its cue from Donkey Kong: Jungle Climber, it had the player swipe the left- and right-hand sides of the screen to propel their character up a procedurally generated mountain. As Oprel…

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Wireframe (Digital) - 1 Issue, #70

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