Laya’s Horizon: IGN India Does a Deep-Dive on the New Flying Adventure Mobile Game With the Developers at Snowman

It began with a spelling error, and a pretty big one too!

No, I am not talking about how the developers at Snowman conjured the name for its upcoming mobile title, Laya’s Horizon. Instead, it was my foolish error, which was me miswriting the game as “Layla’s Horizon” for an entire news piece. Pretty shameful to say the least.

And to add to my embarrassment, no one caught the mistake until I personally received an e-mail from the developers at Snowman. Yes, the same Snowman behind games like Alto’s Odyssey, Alto’s Adventure, and Laya’s Horizon.

After having quite possibly my biggest facepalm moment, the situation somehow helped me luck my way into an opportunity I couldn’t say no to. Following years of enjoying Alto’s games, Snowman Founder Ryan Cash sent me an Android .apk file of Laya’s Horizon weeks prior to its release and boy did I spend my time on it.

For those unaware about Laya’s Horizon, the game centers around the art of flying, as you take control of the protagonist’s adventures in flight. Using just the fingertips, players can weave through the game’s setting of a seaside village, which features environments of all kinds. In the game, players can take upon various challenges, races, or even endlessly explore the vast world that Laya’s Horizon has to offer.

If you’re already floored by my description of Laya’s Horizon, then you can check it out right now on Android (Google Play Store) or iOS (App Store). However, if you still haven’t been impressed (I don’t know what’s wrong with you), then might I suggest you take a look at the conversation that I had with Ryan Cash, and a couple of the developers at the Toronto-based studio, as we they shed light on the game’s most intriguing and exciting aspects.

Making a world worth flying through

So, like I said, I made the mistake of miswriting Laya’s Horizon for an entire news piece. The piece in question was about the game’s first teaser trailer, which released about a couple of months ago. The trailer didn’t reveal much about the game, except for its setting. When asked about the release strategy, Cash stated that it’s all about piquing the interest of the studio’s fanbase with a trailer that got players like me to question literally everything. “But I guess it can be maybe a little bit frustrating for people because we typically don’t say exactly what it is,” noted Cash.

Speaking of the setting itself, the environment in Laya’s Horizon plays a major factor. According to Snowman Lead Designer and Developer, Jason Medeiros, the environment was always built in service of what would be fun to fly through. As seen in the trailers, the game features a seaside village, which comprises of several different elements such as medieval homes, tall spires, windmills, and forests surrounding the areas. Along with that, the terrain differs quite drastically in different regions (Snow, swamps to name a few), which means the thrills and difficulties of flying vary too.

Medeiros mentioned that the game’s visual aesthetics have various references, with one of the early ones being the 1984 Hayao Miyazaki-directed animated film, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. The film inspired the setting of Laya’s Horizon with its stone and wood architecture. Moreover, it also played an emphasis in creating the magical lore surrounding the game, where flying or wingsuiting is the norm for the village’s inhabitants to partake in. “Because we felt that these people would have a relationship with the wind through the magic that they used to fly, we also wanted to make sure that the environment reflected that,” shared Medeiros. “So, that’s why they have wind catchers and windmills all over the place.”

Being the guiding hand to a flier in a 3D, handcrafted world

Compared to Snowman’s previous adventures, the open world in Laya’s Horizon is handcrafted, with every aspect of the environment added to aid the experience of flying. “We found that it was a good opportunity to make sure that we were handcrafted in all those moments so that you could have fun flying,” revealed Medeiros.

Another big change is the move to a 3D world with Laya’s Horizon from the 2D environment of the Alto’s franchise. The new 3D aspect brings a fresh set of challenges because it introduces an entire new axis to deal with, as pointed out by Snowman Lead Producer Owais Akhtar.

One such challenge was making sure players get used to the flying mechanics without it being too challenging to deal with. “At the beginning, as you’re getting used to the controls, you’ll probably hit a lot more things and you might crash against the ground a lot more,” stated Akhtar.

Following several chats with playtesters over the course of the game’s development, the team devised several new mechanics such as the ground force, which keeps players aloft when they’re close to the surface. There’s also a visual reference in the dust that flies up for players to keep note of the ground being close to them.

Another challenge is the various obstacles that players will hit during their flight adventures. “If you hit a tree, it shouldn’t be as punishing as hitting a rock,” said Akhtar. To avoid this issue, the game features several soft obstacles or wobstacles as the team at Snowman likes to call it, where players will wobble when they go through it.

In the end, the developmental process included “chipping away” many of the frustrations that players might face. “Just a little bit of a guiding hand to make it easier,” Akhtar remarked on helping players learn to become better at flying in Laya’s Horizon.

While you may have a guiding hand in the beginning, things soon will get tough for players, as they complete more challenges and missions. “Once people are really good with the controls, they’ll want to keep that challenge going,” Akhtar acknowledged on the difficulty scaling of Laya’s Horizon.

Setting up the magical world (and lore) of Laya’s Horizon

Medeiros confirmed during our chat that just like the Alto’s games, Laya’s Horizon doesn’t have a traditional, heavily plot-driven story. “The story is more about the environment, the characters and the backstory of the land and their wind magic,” he further elaborated.

Speaking of the characters, Medeiros said that the game is filled with people of all kinds, who have backstories. The NPCs aid in the adventure of flying with Laya. “It’s about having fun with your friends, being on the playground and enjoying the sport that you like,” explained Medeiros, with the sport in this case being wingsuiting.

When it comes to the lore, the game sheds light every now and then about the island’s history, however, not much has been planned, since the game is much more about the flying experience. Although, if an expansion is on the cards, then the devs intend to share more about the lore through new characters, challenges, and more.

‘We often have the lore in the background,” stated Akhtar on the plots of Snowman games, as the devs plan on letting players create their own lore in the head through the small plots involved with the game’s various Points of Interests, characters, and more. “It’s a really interesting way of spreading out narrative through the people on the mountain and just talking to them, and through the environment, essentially.”

Touch is the key element of the controls

When I first got my hands on Laya’s Horizon, I was intrigued by the prospects of flying with my fingertips. However, in the first few runs, I inadvertently tilted my phone to move left or right, which is something that several mobile users might be accustomed to for a movement-driven game. It took me a while to get used to the touch-based controls, and when I eventually did, it was smooth sailing from there on.

However, that didn’t stop me from asking the devs why they chose to stick with the touch-based controls in the first place. Ryan Cash was quick to reveal that he particularly wasn’t a big fan of the mechanic, as he instead opted for gesture-based controls on the screen. He further elaborated that using tilt-based controls can be a major problem for players, who might want to play their favorite mobile games on public spaces and transportation. “I think it can have its place in some sort of experience,” observed Cash. “Maybe a photo mode and you can move your phone around a space or something like that.”

Medeiros further revealed that the team at Snowman had considered the idea of using tilt-based controls. “The reason we didn’t do it is more so because the controls for this game kind of are the game,” he said. Medeiros goes on to explain how at the initial stages of development, the project was all about tapping into the fantasy that people have about flying, and that starts with controlling the arms directly using gestures. “As a game designer, one of the things I love is that when we prototyped played it [Laya’s Horizon], it started to feel like something,” added Medeiros. “It has some kind of feeling in your mind that you’re doing something.”

Medeiros further alluded to the use of such controls and the feeling it entails on Snowman’s other titles such as the Alto’s games and Skate City. “All of the controls are based around that kinesthetic embodied feeling of the controls between the player and Laya.”

The touch-based controls are new and exciting, and also challenging as well. Hence why, the devs at Snowman avoided adding a new trick-based gameplay mechanic for players to control. “The controls are novel and they’re complex and they require the player to get over that barrier,” said Medeiros. “So, we were hesitant to add much more complexity on top of that.”

Akhtar added to the points laid out by Medeiros by mentioning the small amount of time that devs have to teach the controls to mobile players. “If you add on too much at the beginning, it might be too much.”

However, this doesn’t mean the game lacks pizzazz, as Laya can attempt trick moves through the various capes that players unlock in the game. As players complete various challenges and missions to level up, this helps them earn various kinds of capes, which brings forth new elements to the flying experience. However, these elements don’t include an additional gameplay mechanic. “There’s no extra gesture you need to learn,” shared Akhtar. ” It’s all just based on the core gestures you already learned when you were playing the game.”

Flying Alone or With Someone Else in Multiplayer?

Just like many of Snowman’s previous games, Laya’s Horizon is a single player experience. However, unlike the Alto’s games, the premise surrounding Laya’s Horizon provides a great opportunity for one to think about multiplayer. That hasn’t been the case so far for the team at Snowman.

“Getting older, the kind of games that we tend to gravitate towards are often single player because we don’t have time to get involved in an endless online multiplayer experience,” admitted Cash.

However, the Snowman Founder hasn’t completely ruled out adding multiplayer to the game. “I think there has been quite a bit of talk of multiplayer across a number of our games and it’s always kind of up for discussion,” he responded. “We talked about it a bit with this game, and when the game comes out, we want to see how it’s received, what people think about it.”

In terms of executing multiplayer with Laya’s Horizon, the team has some loose ideas, with Cash even suggesting the inclusion of an asynchronous multiplayer system, where players don’t have to be playing the game at the same time.

However, as Medeiros shared during our chat, the single player aspect remains its cores. “If our fans ask for multiplayer, it’s possible, we definitely have the idea and even have the prototypes to play,” he disclosed. “But it’s not in the game [right now].”

The DNA behind Snowman games

Snowman adds another feather in its illustrious cap with Laya’s Horizon, a game that satisfies the adventure bug. For many, Laya’s Horizon is Snowman’s at its best, which is creating games with themes of exploration and adventure.

“We all sort of gravitate towards these games that center around movement, flow rhythm,” said Cash on the DNA of the studio and its games.

“There’s something about us wanting to make these spaces that you can escape to, to relax and find a moment of calm and peace in your busy day,” he further explained. “So, we kind of wanted to provide sort of like that feeling of getting out in nature.”

The Snowman head honcho also said that players can expect to see similar experiences in the future from the studio, as they’ve identified their “secret sauce.” However, he’s not closing the doors on the idea of working on other projects, where they can excel.

Akhtar later concluded our chat by letting me know that it’s all about creating meaningful experiences at Snowman, and Laya’s Horizon sure fits that bill.

Laya’s Horizon is now available to play on Android and iOS devices through Netflix, so you will need to have a subscription to experience the latest title from Snowman.