Summary
On the occasion of winning the NYX Game Awards in the PC Game-City Construction category, Above The Desk, the developer of the independent game "Above the Snow" (tentative translation: "Above the Snow"), revealed its market-breaking strategy: using systematic gameplay to drive content dissemination, and naturally transforming programmatically generated sudden plots and highly impactful visual scenes into high-quality materials for anchors and creators; at the same time, it proactively embraces the creator economy, and through early cooperation and brand linkage, it has successfully built a new communication ecology for in-depth stand-alone games.
"Above the Snow" (tentative translation: "Above the Snow"), developed by the Polish independent game studio Above the Desk and published by Wizard Wandering, recently won the NYX Game Awards 2025 "PC City Construction" award for its unique game design and immersive experience.In this snowy mountain narrative management game set in the 1960s Alps, you will become the guardian of a snowy mountain refuge.Welcoming travelers in the wind and snow, using limited resources to maintain a delicate balance of temperature, supplies and safety.The delicate hand-painted world, the real mountain atmosphere and the healing music interweave a snowy journey where crisis and warmth coexist.
The NYX Game Awards is an important global award in the field of creative and interactive media. The jury is composed of senior professionals from the game development, creative design and media industries.This award has always been based on "innovation and quality" as the core judging criteria. Most of the award-winning works in previous years are masterpieces that are both mature in expression and design concept."Above the Snow" received this award during the development stage before it was officially released. This is not only a high recognition of the quality of the game, but also the best affirmation of the innovative spirit of the development team that dares to break through the boundaries of traditional genres.
This honor stems from the creative philosophy that Above The Desk has always adhered to.CEO Micha Wasiak pointed out that the team is committed to creating games that respect players and do not blindly follow trends.Today, "respect" means actively thinking about how the work will be discovered by players.Based on this, the team expanded this concept to the entire life cycle of the game: from designing naturally communicable gameplay, to establishing equal cooperation with creators, to innovative brand linkage and long-term content planning - building a complete set of survival strategies for modern independent games.
Designed for “Streamability”: Systematic gameplay to create natural live content
Faced with the industry's shift from "product-driven" to a "discovery and attention-driven service market," Above The Desk's response strategy is a structural strategic adjustment.They integrate the concept of "Designing for Streamability" into the core of the game to ensure that the game can continue to produce bursty, procedurally generated and visually impactful gameplay moments.
These unique events, naturally generated by the game system, provide streamers with a steady stream of authentic content, making Above Snow stand out in the highly competitive attention market.
Embrace the creator community: treat anchors as core partners
At the marketing level, Above The Desk proactively places game content creators at the core of its strategy.The team prioritizes direct interaction with content creators before the game is released, providing them with early access versions and tools, clearly treating streamers and YouTubers as crucial partners in the discovery process.This concept of "the community is our marketing team" ensures that the game can effectively reach the core audience through key opinion leaders.
Groundbreaking brand cooperation: the first outdoor brand in-game implantation
In addition to deeply cultivating the creator ecology, "Above the Snow" has also taken a bolder step: cooperating with well-known outdoor sports brands and furniture brands for in-game implantation.This groundbreaking move not only brings additional resource support to game development, but also enhances the realism and immersion of the game world through the high degree of fit between the brand and the game's "extreme environment survival" scenario, and provides new ideas for commercial cooperation of independent games.
Adhering to the belief of operating independent games for a long time: maintaining the vitality of the community through content updates
Even though "Above the Snow" is a single-player game with a pay-to-play system, the studio still adheres to the operational thinking of service-oriented games.They have planned a "robust post-launch roadmap" for the game, aiming to maintain the game's vitality among the player community in the long term through "new features, story updates and community-driven content" to achieve the long-term goal of "keeping the game alive in players' libraries."
The game is currently in the development and improvement stage, and the team is actively based on player experience feedback to continue optimizing the game content from multiple dimensions: not only is it designing more furniture systems with exquisite styles and free matching to enrich the personalized construction experience of the shelter; it is also constantly adjusting the interface guidance and optimizing the operation logic to comprehensively improve the friendliness and immersion of the game, striving to present players with a more complete and delicate snow mountain management journey when it is officially released in 2026.
In addition, the narrative depth of "On Snow" has attracted industry attention, and the game was successfully nominated for the "Best Narrative" award at the 2026 Taipei International Game Show.The exhibition is one of the most influential industry events in Asia, and this nomination fully affirms the work’s excellence in emotional expression and storytelling.If you are yearning for this snowy journey, please add the game to your Steam wishlist immediately. You may welcome its arrival in the first quarter of 2026 and wait for the moment when the shelter door opens for you.
