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Interview | David Braben on LostWinds Wii and its Future
on 02.11.2009 at 20:54
Posted by Adam Riley (Adam Riley) 
Comments: 8 
Reads: 27874
Tags:
LostWinds, Frontier, David Braben, WiiWare, Download, Winter of the Melodias
Posted by Adam Riley (Adam Riley) Comments: 8 Reads: 27874 Tags:
LostWinds, Frontier, David Braben, WiiWare, Download, Winter of the Melodias Related Stories
Cubed3 got the chance to speak with David Braben of Frontier UK at Nintendo's recent WiiWare/DSiWare event that took place in London on 16th September, 2009. With LostWinds: Winter of Melodias recently hitting the European market and the original game still selling strongly on the Wii download service, UK developer Frontier has seen so much success with the idea that sprang from a staff forum 'Game of the Week' competition that it looks like there will be plenty more to come from LostWinds in the future.
The full audio interview with David Braben, conducted by Adam Riley and Mike Mason, can be downloaded here:
David Braben (Frontier) Interview - 16th September, 2009
Below are a few of the points mentioned in the interview:
- Quite a few ideas have come from the Game of the Week staff forum, but it is a matter of finding the right time to announce and develop them,
- Frontier now has 230 people in total, just expanded its premises and has been seeing a 32-33% increase per year,
- The UK development scene is growing strong once more, especially with Codemasters turning things around considerably,
- LostWinds 2 only started development in April 2009,
- Square Enix published the original LostWinds in Japan and the game has sold very well over there, bridging the divide that many games cannot,
- There were no problems with the ~40MB file size limit set by Nintendo as the restrictions helped to concentrate the mind. In the past, a mere 22k could be a whole game, yet now most emails are larger than that,
- There is a lot more to come from the LostWinds world, with the whole arc being envisaged before the first title actually came out. Evidence can be seen in early concept art from the original LostWinds, which actually features content found in the sequel, Winter of the Melodias,
- A new LostWinds is confirmed in a roundabout way, with WiiWare again being considered,
- A brand new LostWinds experience that encorporates the best features of the past games is also being considered, instead of a three-game re-release package,
- Frontier is not considering DS development as it is too expensive, but DSiWare is being looked at seriously, although it may not actually be a LostWinds game - it could be something else from the Game of the Week forum. It all depends on what is felt to be right for the platform,
- Frontier does not want to see every game on every platform - it is a case of making the right choices,
- A new Elite is definitely on the way, but no details on when it is coming or for what platform(s) can be revealed yet,
- LostWinds was not always planned for Wii. Nintendo came to Frontier and told them about the WiiWare system. It was a far less risky move to make it a download game, rather than full retail,
- Comparisons between paying £5 for LostWinds, which lasts around 4-6 hours, and £40 for Call of Duty, which can be finished in about the same time are made,
- Feedback from LostWinds from forum users was taken on-board and development of Winter of the Melodias was carried out until the last minute before release,
- If it makes sense, Frontier will consider working closely with other UK developers to help keep the UK development scene strong.
Cubed3's hands-on preview with an early build of the game can be read here, whilst a full review will be posted in a few days.
Be sure to check out the full audio interview and share your thoughts on what you would like to see in future LostWinds games!
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bored -_-
3990
L89 Tom Nook
they been alot of good game coming from the uk it good to see them doing well
Operations Director, Senior Editor
Definitely - and I like the way he said that his team's definitely open to working with other UK developers. It's important to have competition to improve quality at times, but co-operation for the benefit of the consumer is also something that should always be considered.
Adam Riley [ Operations Director :: Senior Editor :: Cubed3 Limited ]
Word of Adam | Voice123 Profile | AdamC3 on Twitter
Adam Riley [ Operations Director :: Senior Editor :: Cubed3 Limited ]
Word of Adam | Voice123 Profile | AdamC3 on Twitter
Xenobladed
2789
L77 K.K. Slider
Great interview.
Id -love- to see more WiiWare from them.
Downloadable gems of 5 hours or so are so much more impulse-buy then full retail games. As long as the quality keeps high, I'll keep coming back.
"in the past, a mere 22k could be a whole game,"
Or a whole universe
The thing with a new Elite game is the "spiritual successors" have already run with the formula quite far (X:Beyond the Frontier etc).
Making a new...proper...Elite is a massive undertaken and it would be very hard to create something as ground breaking as the first was.
Spore has re-introduced us all to procedural content, so I can picture a fractular universe being made scaleable to low end and high-end hardware. But gameplay wise I really dont know where they could go with it.
Perhapes each user has their own solar system generated from a seed, and they can visit any of their friends solar systems (each visit re-sycns changes, but it would all just be deviations from their friends seed value, thus downloads are small). You could slowly increase your "explorable universe" by visiting friends, friends-of-a-friend etc.
Id -love- to see more WiiWare from them.
Downloadable gems of 5 hours or so are so much more impulse-buy then full retail games. As long as the quality keeps high, I'll keep coming back.
"in the past, a mere 22k could be a whole game,"
Or a whole universe
The thing with a new Elite game is the "spiritual successors" have already run with the formula quite far (X:Beyond the Frontier etc).
Making a new...proper...Elite is a massive undertaken and it would be very hard to create something as ground breaking as the first was.
Spore has re-introduced us all to procedural content, so I can picture a fractular universe being made scaleable to low end and high-end hardware. But gameplay wise I really dont know where they could go with it.
Perhapes each user has their own solar system generated from a seed, and they can visit any of their friends solar systems (each visit re-sycns changes, but it would all just be deviations from their friends seed value, thus downloads are small). You could slowly increase your "explorable universe" by visiting friends, friends-of-a-friend etc.
Please give our little random review show a try;
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We have special effects and umm...stuff...
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We have special effects and umm...stuff...
Guest User
LostWInds is an exceptionally piece of art given the hardware restrictions, the download size and working with motion! I do hope they do more and make it a fully-blown retail release or a third one on WiiWare. But not now though, maybe after trying ot other ideas.
on 03.11.2009 at 03:02
Have N64 back. Untold joy.
11558L100 C3 Master
Great interview guys, really enjoyed listening to that. Braben has some really interesting things to say about the industry, especially from a UK perspective.
Trying to think of a witty signature after 'Hacker-gate'...
Review, after review, after review. Fun-Fun!
714
L43 Pipsy
Wait, 230 people work at Frontier? So, not a small developer huh?
Xenobladed
2789L77 K.K. Slider
230 is pretty small these days.
I got a friend that works there. (but not on Lost Winds)
( Edited 03.11.2009 19:01 by Darkflame )
I got a friend that works there. (but not on Lost Winds)
( Edited 03.11.2009 19:01 by Darkflame )
Please give our little random review show a try;
http://randomreviewshow.com/index.html
We have special effects and umm...stuff...
http://randomreviewshow.com/index.html
We have special effects and umm...stuff...
C3 awards...coming soon! Rendered some odd looking trophies lol
15978Managing Director, Founder
Great stuff guys, nice to have an audio interview from time to time! DSiWare would be interesting, would like to see what they can pull off using the stylus and camera setup.
Great to hear, wasn't the biggest fan of the first but can certainly see its appeal
There is a lot more to come from the LostWinds world, with the whole arc being envisaged before the first title actually came out. Evidence can be seen in early concept art from the original LostWinds, which actually features content found in the sequel, Winter of the Melodias,
Great to hear, wasn't the biggest fan of the first but can certainly see its appeal
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