Snowtopia: Ski Resort Tycoon has arrived on Steam early access today, along with a brand new trailer.
If like many snow junkies, you have been watching live YouTube feeds of all your favourite ski resorts currently empty due to COVID 19 travel restrictions amidst some of the best worldwide snow conditions in years, then you can now frustrate yourself even more by becoming the next digital snow resort manager via Snowtopia early access on Steam.
Annoyed that the resort you love only has one lift to get you up to the slopes in the morning, meaning hundreds of people funnelling into a space made for five? Wished you could ski in/ski out from your hotel? Want more challenging runs away from the beginner’s area? Well now you budding resort manager, you can!
Rather than the typical financial-based system, your resort is staffed by volunteers, and you need to assign them to tasks. This makes it easier to experiment with slope layouts without worrying about expenditure, as you can just reassign the staff after they’ve finished their tasks.
The game has been receiving mixed reviews on Steam, with complaints of poor optimisation causing people’s PC’s to crash to desktop, along with some criticism of limited content. As this is in Early Access, you can expect to see plenty of future content updates and optimisations, so it’s worth trying the demo first to see if this is something you’d be interested in, as your feedback can help shape the development of the game.
“Snowtopia makes resort building accessible and fun for all. There’s no money in the game, creating a new twist on the genre where resources are managed differently and the focus is squarely on skier satisfaction. The game’s snappy creation tool lets you drop pistes easily on the mountainside and add the right kind of ski lift for the terrain, while keeping an eye on the queues of impatient ski nuts of course.
Running a successful resort brings more skiers of all kinds to sample the slopes, terraces and tartiflette, so make sure you’re ready for them. Fix broken lifts, groom the pistes and run enough ski patrols to keep your visitors safe. Happy skiers will show their appreciation by joining the volunteers running the resort, making sure everything on the mountain stays in perfect shape.
During Early Access an avalanche of new features will be added to the game, including, yes, avalanches, plus dynamic weather, snow cannons, ski schools, more buildings, and new staff models. Modding is also planned for the coming months, so players can customize their dream ski resort down to the last icy detail.”
Snowtopia can be purchased from Steam, priced at £17.49, and there is also a free demo available for you to try out before committing.
