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David O’Reilly’s Mountain Simulator ‘Mountain’ Gets a New Update

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We’re always joking around here at what a time paradox the world of mobile gaming is. So often we’ll be talking about a game and say something along the lines of “Oh yeah that came out a few months ago I think" only to look up the actual release date and be stunned that it was actually in fact many years ago. In my mind, it feels like only yesterday that artist and filmmaker David O’Reilly released his controversial iOS project Mountain ($0.99) to the App Store. In actuality it was more than 4 years ago in the summer of 2014. Wow! However, just because it’s been out for a while doesn’t mean Mr. O’Reilly hasn’t stopped working on Mountain and just today he’s released a big version 2.0 update which adds in all sorts of new features, all of which are on display in the action-packed trailer below.

So in case you aren’t in the know, Mountain is a weird interactive art experience where you don’t even really do anything. You’ll draw a few pictures after you fire up the app and then you’ll get a randomly generated mountain to call your very own. Time passes in the game, things happen to the mountain, and that’s about it. You can diddle around with a little virtual keyboard to play some tunes and you can somewhat interact with the variety of strange objects that might crash into your mountain. But by and large Mountain is something you sit back and watch, and things may or may not happen while you do. It’s a fun and weird thing to pop in and check on every now and then, and surprisingly enough there are actually multiple “endings" to the game. It’s very debatable whether or not it’s even a “game" at all, and hoo boy did people get SO MAD over Mountain when it came out. The comments from gamers across the internet and the many editorial pieces from outlets large and small all had something to say about Mountain, and I overdosed hard on popcorn kicking back and watching the madness unfold. Good times.

Anyway as with most Internet Outrages people slowly moved on and forgot about Mountain, but a few big updates over the years from O’Reilly have kept things fresh for the fans who had grown fond of the experience. That includes today’s update which refines the entire experience and adds in some new content for players to randomly happen upon. It’s a bigger and better mountain simulator now, and as someone who actually appreciates the weird experience that is Mountain I’m quite happy about that. For more info about Mountain, as well as a whole bunch of over the top comments, check out our previous coverage including when it hit the App Store, our 24 hour livestream, our inadvertent capturing of one of the “endings" during that livestream, and our coverage of one of the early updates.

  • Mountain

    Experience life as a Mountain in this relaxing nature simulation game. Generate a unique Mountain and visit it any time …
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