When Ski Lifts Go Wrong

Three months of Unity migration and mobile adaptation, preparing Hugecalf Studios' physics puzzler for the Epic Games Store on Windows, Android and iOS.

Summary

The project: Epic Games approached Hugecalf Studios about bringing its physics puzzler to the Epic Games Store, which meant new Windows, Android and iOS versions.
What we did: Over three months we upgraded the game from Unity 2018 to Unity 6, adapted its controls and interface for touch, optimised the mobile builds and handled store integration.
The result: Mobile builds cut from around 500MB to 150MB and running at 60fps on the phones and tablets we tested, with the original physics carried across unchanged.

In brief

Overview

Timeline: 2026 (3 months)
Platform: Windows, iOS, Android (Epic Games Store versions, planned)
Engine upgrade: Unity 2018 to Unity 6
Mobile build: 150MB at 60fps (Down from around 500MB)
Genre: Puzzle / Physics
Engagement: Engine Migration

Built with

Unity
C#
Epic Online Services

Team

After Epic Games approached Hugecalf Studios about bringing When Ski Lifts Go Wrong to its store, we spent three months upgrading the physics puzzler to Unity 6, a Long Term Support (LTS) release, and preparing Windows, Android and iOS versions together. The Epic Games Store releases are planned for October. Ocean View Games handled the engine migration, mobile gameplay and interface adaptation, optimisation and store integration. Quality assurance (QA) was handled separately by the Hugecalf team. The existing Steam and Nintendo Switch releases provided the starting point; this engagement did not produce new builds for those stores. Read the full case study for the dependency updates, shared platform architecture and side-by-side gameplay checks behind the port.

Gallery

When Ski Lifts Go Wrong gameplay - low-poly snowboarder character outside an alpine log cabin lodge

When Ski Lifts Go Wrong build mode - blueprint construction grid with a structural truss connecting two gondola stations and a planned cable path

When Ski Lifts Go Wrong gameplay - Drag Bridge level fail state with a snowboarder ragdoll thrown against a cliff face

When Ski Lifts Go Wrong gameplay - Round Island level showing twin gondola stations on a floating cliff connected by player-built truss bridges

When Ski Lifts Go Wrong gameplay - The Cannon level showing a low-poly alpine setting with skier ragdoll physics and on-screen control HUD

Case Studies

When Ski Lifts Go Wrong

Bringing an Established Game to New Platforms

A three-month Unity 2018 to Unity 6 migration and mobile port for Hugecalf Studios, ahead of a planned Epic Games Store release on Windows, Android and iOS.

Read Case Study

When Ski Lifts Go Wrong gameplay screenshot

Our Contributions

Unity 2018 to Unity 6

Updated deprecated code, Odin Inspector and custom shaders. Side-by-side play comparisons with the original confirmed gameplay consistency without physics retuning.

Adapted for Phones and Tablets

Added tap-and-drop construction, on-screen controls and a mobile tutorial in every supported language. Mobile builds reached 150MB and 60fps on the Samsung Galaxy A35 5G and Galaxy S25, the iPad Air (2020) and the iPad Pro (M1).

Three Epic Games Store Versions

Prepared Windows, Android and iOS versions from one shared repository, using preprocessor directives and assembly definitions to separate platform-specific code.