The Snowfield represents an attempt to make a simulation-based narrative game according to a special method for developing such games, a method designed to avoid the need for complex A.I. or massive content generation. The idea was not to relying on codified narrative theories or formulas - like three-act structures, etc. - but rather assume "what makes a good story" cannot be systematized and instead must be arrived at organically via extensive user testing.

The method involved designing and creating many different "building blocks" - characters, behaviors, and/or objects - that stories could be made out of. Through observation of how players played with them in early builds, increasingly fine-tuned decisions were made that would push towards a final product. In other words, The Snowfield is an experiment in seeing how inverting the traditional relationship between Design and QA can streamline a development process for creating highly improvisational, simulation-based narrative worlds on a tight schedule.