New Ski Video Game Featuring Phil Casabon and Henrik Harlaut in the Works

Depending on who you ask, no video game has fully captured the skiing experience. Growing up, my ski friends and I gravitated towards the Skate or Amped series’ which, despite not involving skiing, felt more like skiing than anything else we tried. Still, I was always left a bit wanting as I constructed wishlists for ski games that never came to be.

I assume that other skiers/gamers feel similarly. A few wonderful indie projects fill the gap— Shredsauce , Gnarshmallow —but at any given point over the past two decades, including today, you’d probably excite more than one skier if you told them that a new ski game involving a pair of beloved pros was in the works. Last week, Matt Schwagler did just that.

Several months ago, Schwagler took a break from professional poker to find some new hobbies and reset. Before stepping away, he'd tried the programming language JavaScript, which he found boring. But Godot, a game engine, caught his interest, and he began learning the basics, eventually deciding to combine two of his favorite things: video games and skiing.

Schwagler grew up skiing outside Seattle, Washington, at Ski Acres—now called Summit Central—where his dad was a member of the ski patrol team. During the weekends, Schwagler would stay at the patrol lodge and ski, cementing his passion for snowsports.

Initially, Schwagler planned to use skiing as a vessel to improve his game development skills—completing a project the public could try wasn't necessarily the goal. “I started like, ‘Well, I'm just gonna try to get a simple skier down the mountain, stuff like that,'” he explained.

It was slow going at first, but as the work progressed, Schwagler realized he might be creating something worth sharing. “Maybe if I don't run into a lot of problems,” he thought, “I could, you know, just at least put it out for free somewhere for people to play it and not be too embarrassed.”

In March, he posted on Newschoolers, a freeskiing-focused forum. He asked to see what people wanted from his ski game, generating a flurry of serious answers alongside some obligatory jokes: “Have expensive food in [the] chalet.”

I bumped into the post during my usual daily trawl of Newschoolers, and admittedly, I was skeptical. Behind the scenes, though, Schwagler’s post had caught the attention of Eric Iberg, storied ski filmmaker and Armada skis co-founder. Iberg is the manager of professional skiers Phil Casabon and Henrik Harlaut, whom he’s known for years. His pitch to Schwagler? Make the game star Casabon and Harlaut. Schwagler was in.

“I've always been stoked on video games and skiing because most of us—I’m from Minnesota—don't get a ski for nine months out of the year, right?” said Iberg, who has run Shredsauce contests with Casabon and Harlaut.

Schwagler and Iberg previously worked together when Schwagler was a videographer for the 2007 ski film Idea , which Iberg produced and directed. Over the phone, they began collaborating again and bounced ideas back and forth about what the game could look like.

“Once Iberg came in, he kind of put some, you know, accelerant on it,” said Schwagler.

A few days ago, Schwagler released gameplay footage and a name for his creation: B&E Ski . The name comes from the monikers of Harlaut and Casabon, which are E-Dollo and B-Dog, respectively. In the game, they are represented as two anthropomorphic cartoon characters wearing baggy outerwear: Harlaut, a goblin, and Casabon, a dog. It's not the iconic pair's first partnership. The B&E name titles multiple projects, including a K2 signature ski boot.

“Unbelievable. Yeah, so rad. I'm blown away. Really,” said Casabon when asked about B&E Ski . “I was a big Amped 2 player, which was the snowboard game, a big Skate player, so all these very notorious games I was all about.”

“It's dope to see the dog and the goblin steeze it out on tricks that I could never imagine doing,” he added.

Schwagler decided to release the footage last week because, he said, "I got it to a certain point where I thought it was acceptable to show.” Most of the systems are working, ranging from about 20% to 90% done. Schwagler plans to add a few more before the game reaches “alpha”. In video game jargon, “alpha” loosely refers to a game's playable, working draft. It’s not a polished or finished state, and features regularly change.

Schwagler has secured a couple of crucial development collaborators but is taking on a majority portion of the work himself. "Once in a while, I'll get stuck somewhere, like in the programming kind of area of it," he said. "And then I'll commission out a guy to basically hold my hand for like a week, and then he'll get me past kind of certain milestones." Schwagler also has people helping with digital objects—like 3D models of rails—and VFX art.

Even with outside assistance, maintaining the pace of game development is daunting. Schwagler sometimes puts in 15-plus-hour days, and B&E Ski remains his primary focus.

"When you're constantly doing it every day at an unhealthy rate and losing the use of your legs a little bit—I think [expletive] gets done," Schwagler laughed. Iberg had a similar assessment: “What he's done by himself in the last year is [expletive] nuts.”

When exactly can you try the game? October's now the target date for a small, simple demo. For that to happen, though, Schwagler said, "A lot of things have to go right." Game development is incredibly tough, so make sure to give Schwagler patience—and plenty of time to do his thing.

In the meantime, you can stay updated by checking out B&E Ski’s Instagram page.

Related: Powder Mountain Introducing Permanent, Skiable, Open-Air Art Museum

Be the first to read breaking ski news with POWDER. Subscribe to our newsletter and stay connected with the latest happenings in the world of skiing. From ski resort news to profiles of the world’s best skiers, we are committed to keeping you informed.

Submit your best clips for a chance to be featured on POWDER. Tune in and watch handpicked, high-quality ski videos streaming all day long on POWDER TV , and subscribe to our YouTube channel .