My guest this episode is Andrew Schimmel, associate producer for Built By Snowman. Snowman is probably most well known for its mobile snowboarding games, Alto's Adventure and Alto's Odyssey. But in September 2019, Snowman hit the ground running with the launch of Apple Arcade, releasing two new games with the debut of the platform — Where Cards Fall, developed in tandem with The Game Band, who recently put out the viral success Blaseball, and Skate City, made in collaboration with Agens, an independent developer based in Oslo, Norway.
I sat down with Andrew to talk about the latter, how Snowman got involved with making Skate City, his personal relationship with skateboarding, and how hard it is to launch a skateboarding game on a touch screen. I ended up learning a lot about Apple Arcade as a service, what it's like to launch a game during skateboarding's mini-renaissance in the game industry, and how being hit by a car changed Andrew's career path forever.
I hope you enjoy our chat.
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