Interview with the Creator of Deluxe Ski Jump

Summary

Jussi Koskela tells us the secret behind the game’s unique feeling of flying. This is a complicated time for ski jumping in Norway. Interest has been declining for years, with plenty of negative press, and it all peaked recently with the disappointing revelations of widespread suit cheating among Norwegian jumpers. But perhaps we can use this rough patch to reminisce about truly great ski jumping experiences — experiences that, of course, took place in front of a screen. Deluxe Ski Jump developer Jussi Koskela’s ski-jumping toy that you can see at the Finnish Museum of Games (Photo: Jussi Koskela) There have been several games that have given us varying degrees of that wonderful feeling of lift. Growing up, I mostly stared into a screen powered by MS-DOS, and I’m guessing that most of us DOS folks have at some point played The Games: Winter Challenge. It offered a variety of winter sports activities, but let’s be honest — ski jumping was the only fun one. It was incredibly frustrating, though, that it was impossible to land jumps where you actually timed the take-off perfectly. Back when the New Year’s competition in Garmisch-Partenkirchen felt more important than New Year’s Eve, I was thrilled to discover a little game called Four Hills by Jukka Hakosalo. It let me take part in the whole Four Hills Tournament, competing against legends like Bredesen and Goldberger. The game was very simple, but sometimes it doesn’t take much to be entertained. But everything changed the year we discovered Deluxe Ski Jump. It was the game we’d been waiting for all along. At last, the ultimate ski jumping game had arrived. We had a chat with the man who gave us this gift more than 25 years ago. First of all—who are you? I’m Jussi Koskela, a 45-year-old solo game developer from Finland, and I’ve been working on the Deluxe Ski Jump games since 1999. Jussi Koskela at the Pixel Heaven 2024 in Warsaw together with DSJ2 players. (Photo: Jussi Koskela) How did you get started with game deve...