February 14, 2024 - Day 410 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 446
Game: Snowtopia
Platform: Steam
Released: Dec 15, 2022
Installed: Feb 14, 2024
Unplayed: 0d
Playtime: 27m
Rating: 1 - Nope
Snowtopia is a top-down/third-person snow resort management sim. It's the last game in this month's Humble Choice Bundle.
You start out in the middle of nowhere in a snow-covered valley with the main buildings of a snow-resort in the centre, begging for you to build it out into a functional skiing paradise.
There's potential here for something interesting, but it's let down painfully by a tutorial that explains things in a way that still leaves you unsure of exactly what you're supposed to do.
However, the game's biggest failing is that it tells you to build ski runs on the vector-graphics hills, and then when you try to, it gives the cryptic error "Impossible to build on uphill slope."
It feels like it was designed by someone who understands exactly what that is supposed to mean, and since it's obvious to them, it should be obvious to everyone else.
However, having lived just south of the NSW snowfields for over a decade, one of the most important things required for ski runs is the uphill slope, so you have something to ski down.
Don't let the time played fool you; I became determined to at least complete the tutorial. I did not. I gave up in frustration.