Snøfall

In Scandinavia, the advent calendar tv series is as integral part of our Christmas traditions as gingerbread. We were therefore thrilled when the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK) asked us to create a companion mobile app to their 2016 advent calendar tv-series Snøfall (‘Snowfall’).

A beautiful atmospheric game

Having done 100+ game productions, our crack-team of experienced game developers knows how to create a special experience for each new game. «With Snøfall, we set out to craft a beautiful, atmospheric game experience to match the delightful and adventurous mood of the Snøfall TV series,» says Peter Måseide, Head of Games.

Creative Director Kim Lid created a stylised animated expression of the Snøfall universe that establishes the adventurous atmosphere from the moment you launch the game, and looks great on mobile screens. The game is designed for mobile through-and-through. In developing the game, we made use of a range of cutting-edge technologies, many of which from the very latest iteration of the cross-platform Unity3D game engine.

Fun for children – of all ages

And as with the tv-series, we wanted to the game to be an enjoyable experience for the whole family. We designed the game mechanics to make it enjoyable for a seven-year-old as well as older children — and their parents.

In order to achieve this, we chose a dead-simple one-touch platform game mechanic. While simple at first, the levels are carefully designed to ensure a progression in difficulty as the player becomes familiar with the controls. And the player can jump straight to the top of the level, or try to pick up all the stars that are spread out in the level. Catching all the stars in all levels is no small feat!

A companion app enhancing the tv experience

NRK has pioneered the use of multi-channel distribution for its hit teen series SKAM (‘SHAME’). The production team behind SKAM publishes original content on social media in addition to releasing the show online throughout the week.

With Snøfall, NRK wanted to reach also a much younger audience, so they wanted an app that would serve as a companion to the tv series and enhance the experience.

In this app, you play as the main character Selma and help her find her way to the magical world of Snøfall. The visual style and atmosphere of the levels change in lock-step with Selma’s journey in the TV series.

What’s more, each day the app will reveal a bit more about the main characters of series. You can check what each of the characters are thinking about each of the 24 days until Christmas Eve.

The result

Shortly after it’s launch, Snøfall skyrocketed to the very top of the App Store and Google Play charts in Norway — in fact the only Norwegian-produced game to do so in 2016. Just within its first few days it was installed by over 50.000 adventurous Norwegians.

One of the many 5-star user reviews captured the spirit of the game even better than we could: «Fun and pretty game, with great atmosphere and simple yet entertaining graphics. Both my 5- and 6-year-old have been able to complete the levels until now. So far the levels are designed so that they seem more difficult than they really are, which give the little ones a great sense of achievement 🙂 »

Critics loved it too. At Spillprisen (Norwegian Game Award) 2016 the game took home the award for ‘Best Fun for Everyone’.