Now here’s a concept that works: Skiing Yeti Mountain is a mobile game that donates 50% of its profits to the Nepal earthquake relief fund.
Since its launched all of five days ago (May 21), it’s already raised about USD 9,000 so far and been downloaded a ridiculous 350,000 times. Or, to put it another way, 50k a day. A day.
This is the first app by Sydney-based company Featherweight, so park? That’s the ball that just got knocked out of you.
The game – which has a solid gameplay, btw – was never intended to be a charity money maker. Developers Tim Kaldor and Dylan Bevis had been working on it for about six months when the Nepal earthquake struck, killing over 7,000 people and devastating a country.
“Before starting Featherweight, I had been living and working with the election commission in Nepal as an Australian Youth Ambassadors for Development (AYAD),” Kaldor told Pedestrian.
“My girlfriend is Nepali and lives in a badly effected village. We were just in the process of getting a second visa for her. The earthquake struck, I was really stressed out, and I couldn’t think about anything else… so I wanted to give all the money I make from it.”
Skiing Yeti Mountain is a free game, so the money comes from paying the $3.75 to remove ads. (You can make further donations HERE.)
Beyond all the feel good reasons to download it, Skiing Yeti Mountain is just a damn good game to play. You’re on a mission: to find the elusive Yeti, while carving and conquering increasingly difficult levels of skiing courses while trying not to impale yourself on a tree.
The retro feel of the game will cue all those nostalgic feels for ~90s kids~ (things 90s kids love dot com), and the gameplay mimics the weighted feel of actually skiing down a mountain.
“SkiFri came free on windows when we were kids,” said Kador (who’s 26, btw). “That’s our main inspiration, and why there are all the references to the yeti.”
Check out the trailer below and try not to fall into acid flashbacks.
