Cult classic Microsoft game ‘SkiFree’ is getting a 3D revival

SkiFree Extreme – Mountain Guide – an arcade adventure game inspired by the original SkiFree from 1991 – is now in development for mobile and PC.

DevRatGames submitted the game in the Fireside Jam on itch.io where all developers had to use the theme of “guide” to determine the type of game that would be made.

“The thing that instantly popped in my head was some kind of mountain guide, and the game I came to think about was the classic SkiFree that came with computers back in the ’90s,” explained the developer in one of the devlogs on YouTube.

SkiFree was included in the Microsoft Entertainment Pack 3 and became a fast favourite for countless young children playing on their PC. The Abominable Snowman popped up to chase the player when they surpassed the 2,000 metre mark and theories on how to outrun the monster prevailed even into the 2010s.

While DevRatGames final product on itch.io isn’t visually very polished owing to the jam’s time constraints, the entry received a lot of praise for offering an entertaining challenge and an ability to compete with other players for the highest score.

Buoyed by that, the developer decided to take the concept forward into a fully-fledged game using the feedback they had gathered as well as their own ambitions for the game.

DevRatGames referred to Superhot, Baba is You and Hollow Knight as examples of beloved and successful games that were previously an entry into a game jam.

DevRatGames explained in the second devlog update that SkiFree Extreme – Mountain Guide will offer missions for the player to complete like rescuing stranded skiers and an overarching lore to the world. Additionally, there are three characters to choose from at the moment – Steve the snowboarder, Brian the skier and Dustin the little child on the snow racer.

A new feature, avalanches, cannot be survived unless the player swerves to the edge of the snowfall, and hazards like goats will chase the player and knock them off the mountain if they’re too close. DevRatGames hasn’t shared a time frame for the game’s launch, but fans can keep up with their progress on YouTube.

In other gaming news, gaming companies have ridiculed Elon Musk’s choice to rebrand Twitter to X, with RuneScape developer Jagex pointing out how similar the logo is with its own.